That one has me laughing. Thanks so much. Great Orient Express post, too.

Glad you liked the “First of all” post, but gladder you’re happier and healthier (or at least eating better, not always the same thing). — Re happier, one nice thing about Facebook can be that the gallows-humor-minded such as myself can find common ground in groups; I’ve founded a few, but my recent “Take care of yourself, Dick! We need you healthy enough to stand trial.” is the most successful with 130 members! I’m so proud!!! True, it’s maybe a little silly to post links to items like “Restaurants in The Hague,” “What do they eat in prison? Prison food.”, or Onion classics like “New heart device allows Cheney to experience love”, but they bring fleeting moments of joy to my own black and shriveled heart.

It’s not just Facebook, though; I suppose I’ve been a little glum myself. I really tried not to be an Kool-Aid drinking Obamabot before the election to avoid just this. But it didn’t work. So I’ve sometimes been disappointed to the point of political and certainly writer paralysis. (Got accused of wallowing in/purveying “disappointment porn” on Facebook once; at least I got a good neologism out of it!) Plus, I can’t make head or tails of the procedural thicket the health care stuff has gotten tangled in, and I conclude that’s half the point from their point of view. But the civil liberties and detainee stuff has been *exceptionally* disappointing — e.g., the looming 180 on the KSM trial, the DoJ arguing that cell phone users tacitly concede their privacy rights…. maybe I’m a disappointment *connoisseur* now, yeah, that’s the ticket. “Acidic, with a bouquet reminiscent of Carter’s third year…”

When I do feel up to it, I always check here — and I really liked your ‘First, I know both those guys’ post.

The gravitational field of Facebook is indeed amazing. Glad you’ve decided to keep the old blog afloat. Tonight I was re-acquainting myself with the Google newsreader and that’s why I’m here. Wanted to read some good long-form writing rather than get buffeted by snippets of songs I don’t know and what someone is having for supper and short-form … stuff.