Well, I'm actually able to sit up for extended periods of time, so I'm here. I swear I'm beginning to sound like one of those old ladies sitting around kvetching about her aches and pains (why, Mel, you ARE one of those old ladies kvetching about her aches and pains ... oh, that's right, I forgot).

Anyway, Santa brought me sleepwear (painfully happily received as I gather the wool of years), the new Beatles "Love" CD, a couple of new books including Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope", a cordless desktop, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" (yes, I realize, I'm really a boring old liberal now), and a George Bush doormat. It's a bit of a rip-off of the original Ronald Reagan doormat (which I had and loved), but it's really even more fun to use -- fearfully fun, in fact.

Sorry to see the last vestige of decency in the US Republican party pass away a couple of days ago. President Ford was pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro-women's rights, and a progressive on social issues in general. Gerald Ford is also the only US President I've ever seen close-up in person. A friend of mine and I were waiting to board a plane at LAX when President Ford came ambling past, one Secret Service guy in front, one behind. He had to be seventy even then. I hope I'm able to make a young Secret Service guy scramble to keep up with me when I'm 70 (no, I don't mean it like that ... well, not completely).

Have a great New Year but not so great that you get hurt or anything.

Oh, to my fellow Robert Anton Wilson fans -- Bob has a blog now. http://robertantonwilson.blogspot.com/