I revise my earlier statement: on the basis of its first season, I am ready to declare Slings & Arrows (2003—2006) some of the best television I have ever seen. That includes Babylon 5, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Muppet Show. When we emerge from the other side of this weekend, I plan to find and watch at least the second season with anyone I can plonk down on the couch and play the first five minutes for.

On that subject, I feel it only responsible to warn people that I will probably be out of touch until at least Monday; the relatives begin to arrive tomorrow afternoon and at least three of them will be staying with us in addition to my brother. He has chosen to spend the last week before his wedding at home, so that he can go from his parents' house to the one he will share with his wife; like a reversed fragment of Greek lyric, the bride who is led from her father's house to her husband's, even if they have lived in the same apartment, with his photographs and her athame and their small black cat, since they graduated college. One of tomorrow's arrivals will be the woman who is my sister although we share no parents; she lives in Hawaii and I have not seen her in seven years. So she will be jet-lagged out of her mind, and I will have been cleaning since oh God o'clock, and we have agreed not to kill one another on sight despite all indications to the contrary, and it will be wonderful.

Goodnight.