Hey, Gray, my friend. I only have time for it because I can write and type as fast as I can think. And I can research facts just slightly less quickly. All those many years of speechwriting for a living. Otherwise, I'd be hosed. Completely relegated to being a science bookworm-nerd. And nothing else.

Also today's my 45th birthday, and so I'm rebelling against the "establishment" of my current priorities and researching and writing about what I want to. . . .After a big dinner and a glass and a half of wine, politics here seems more compelling.

How're you? And please tell me candidly if you or any of your late-40s contemporaries truly do find women in their mid-40s attractive? I want to know if my husband and our neighbors have been lying to me this evening. If I've been lying to myself. . . .