He was with me until he started bringing earthquakes and volcanoes into the mix. What's bringing that about? Too many fat people pressing on the Earth?

Sure, there's a lot of crap going on right now but sometimes it comes in bunches. When that happens, folks start noticing the old plaster crack over the sofa and the basement sink that's leaked for years, and everything starts looking like a disaster.

It sounds like Roger just sat down to write on an 'off' day. That would have been me about a week ago. Things are bad (they're _always_ bad to someone) but they're not '100 years' bad.

Pour yourself another eggnog and add a bit more rum to it than usual. We'll resume tackling our difficulties tomorrow.

For now, we could all use a moment's pause to collect our wits. Let's pull our way out of this in 2009.