Rumors of my disappearance have been (largely) exaggerated-- I've just been insanely busy with work, meetings, job search, very interesting research, and the bizarre chess game that is networking in this fair city.....

My interview went well, though strangely. Will explain later. Thanks to all your encouragement!

The world is also still turning in its furious apathy-- The Pentagon pulling back from the Korean DMZ and being both petulant and heavy-handed in its plans to shift a large portion of its European deployments to bases in the Eastern European countries where they have a huge amount of leverage and away from those pariahs, France and Germany, who had the temerity to question Rumsfeld, W, Wolfowitz and Perle in their headlong and colossally stupid rush to war.

Oh, and rampaging thugs killing and looting throughout Aceh (Indonesia), wholesale slaughter in the villages of the Congo, and the sinister "disappearing" of innocents in Belarus don't even get near the front pages.

We all need a bit of a diversion, like this scintillating piece of news:

Early-morning break-in: An Old Town Alexandria couple was awakened about 2:15 a.m. yesterday in their upstairs bedroom by a man wielding their Calphalon wok. The male resident confronted the intruder and was struck on the head with the pan, which the intruder had taken from the kitchen after breaking into the home on North St. Asaph Street, police said.

The two men continued to fight, and the resident, who managed to gain control of the intruder, walked him out the front door, police said. The suspect fled, but police were alerted and made an arrest nearby. Martin D. Lorton, 39, of the 300 block of Colonial Avenue, was charged with unlawful wounding, burglary and destruction of property. The resident sustained minor injuries but declined treatment.

(Washington Post Metro Section 060503)

The whole thing is absolutely horrible-- I've been attacked myself-- but with a wok?
And he couldn't have just appeared in the second-floor bedroom.... He had to have climbed the stairs with it!