Back in a Few Days

I apologize for my absence during the past several weeks. As many of you are probably aware, my health is not very good these days in the best of times. So I suppose it's not surprising that, after the death of a good friend at the beginning of this year, which was then followed by the death of my sister in mid-March (both deaths following diagnosis with frightening speed, in a couple of months or, in the case of my sister, in only three weeks), my own health suffered several major setbacks over the last month. I've had one nasty, tenacious infection after another, capped by a serious bout with flu-bronchitis-and God knows what, which lasted for two full weeks and is still not fully gone. I had thought I was dealing with the losses in my life as well as might be expected under the circumstances; my body disagreed, and forced me to rest almost nonstop until a day or two ago.

I'm slowly beginning to feel somewhat better; my brain, which had barely been able to retain two related thoughts recently, appears to have survived, and is starting to make its existence known to me again. So I hope to be back to writing in the next several days.

I certainly will have a few things to say about the Imus controversy, particularly about some aspects of that story which appear to have been almost entirely neglected (which I view as completely predictable and unsurprising). I'll get to that in the coming week. I'm sorry if you've written to me and I haven't responded; I've barely been on the internet or looked at email for the last couple of weeks.

So, back soon now. In the meantime, still more rest is indicated.