Okay, here's the new look of the day. I first tried a slightly girlier motif today, just to balance the testosterone, but it was ugly as hell when combined with Safari; if it had been a hat, it would have been found on Minnie Pearl. Also, my apologies to everyone for yesterday's loss of archived comments, but I'm afraid that SquawkBox and I are going through a rough patch and just don't understand each other any more. At least Blogger has a comments feature of its own.

In other news, I was asked a few days ago, for the first time ever, whether I had grandchildren. It was in a local Radio Shack store, by a solicitous clerk who noticed that I was looking at (a.) family-oriented cell phone plans and (b.) stocking-stuffer-sized electronic games. I know that this kind of remark is considered to be a gaffe ("Dude! Are you insinuating that I don't look, oh, about 22 any more?") but I thought it was funny, and technically I am a great-aunt, which is close enough. (The actual grandparents of my great-niece are younger than I am, anyway.)

Yup, I could just picture my alternate-universe self as a grand-anything, out Christmas shopping. ("I got her one of these adorable Anarchist Barbies. And I'm hoping the permits can be expedited so that she can have her very own bullet-ant colony in time for the holidays.")