James just seems so darn relevant these days. Today, with no time to read all the blogs I usually read, I made time for him, 'cause I knew it would make me feel better.

The "real" reason I don't get TiVO (besides not wanting to pay for it):

" ... my eyes hurt. They have that fuzzy achy weariness that usually presages a cold, or means I need more sleep. But I can’t sleep. I’ve nine hours of Simpsons to watch. (The TiVo keeps recording Simpsons episodes I haven’t seen in years, and I feel obligated to watch them.) Last time I checked the machine had also taped another movie for me. Great. Wonderful. My TV now resembles my email inbox."

And how I feel sometimes when I've paid too much attention to the news:

"You read these stories, and your shoulders just slump . . . and when you look at your own happy baby, gurgling in the noontime light pouring in the kitchen window, you just want to build a wall around the house, dig a moat, hire some archers to keep the lunatic world outside.

But do you know how hard it is to get good archers nowadays? We’ve been going through an agency, and after ten interviews we can’t find one who’ll man the parapets and do light housework. But we’ll end up bending on the latter point just to get someone to do the former.

Damn tight labor market, I tell you.

Damn tight."

Happy Hump-Day.