I'm back again after a brief whirlwind of family visitors. The poodle had a great time and is now comatose by the wood stove, sleeping off the thrill. Thanks to my zealous father and a friendly neighbor, I now have a refrigerator full of okra, sweet peppers, and fennel, but I also have only two people available to eat all of this stuff because the activity-laden boy won't be home for dinner for the foreseeable future.

At the moment, however, I'm going to try to push all thoughts of this vegetable bounty out of my mind. Not only do I have an editing project that I must finish, but the proofs of my anthology have arrived. I feel overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of typos.

But yesterday I did purchase a book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, published in 1841 by someone named Charles McKay, LL.D. With chapters on subjects such as "Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard" and "Popular Follies of Great Cities," it is sure to be worth every penny.