1. Question of the day: will I or won't I be hauling a carload of middle school boys to a basketball tournament? The Sick One has not yet emerged from his lair, but he seemed to be on the mend yesterday. By evening he had managed to digest a bowlful of red Jello along with a handful of bland crackers, although his mood was not improved by watching the UMaine hockey team lose to Alabama. What could be more embarrassing?

2. The captain of the Maine team is named Spencer Abbott, but last year Paul and I misheard his name, and now we always call him Expensive Rabbit.

3. Red Jello. It's so lurid, squatting there in my refrigerator among the oranges and lettuces. It scares me every time I open the door.

4. Quotation of the day, from James, after arriving home from school and opening the refrigerator: "Ew! Red Jello! Nasty! Can I have some?" (Proceeded to consume 99 percent of the convalescent's only sustenance)

5. New essay out in the Sewanee Review. Click here to read my out-of-context reference to Coleridge's person from Porlock (you, know that guy who interrupted the poet's transcription of his "Kubla Khan" dream).