I'm starting to get used to the sleepin' in. So is Sis, who made the mistake last semester of enrolling in an 8 o'clock Economics class. Next semester, her earliest class is 11 a.m. She's starting to understand her biorhythms. She's a night owl, like me. Only thing on tap today is to get my Christmas shopping done for Mama. Shopping scares me to death, but I'm determined to persevere.

I'll be back at the office for two days beginning tomorrow to check the e-mails and pound out a coupla editorials. I've been flirtin' with the idea of starting another "Red State" rant, with you, O My Readers, filling in the blanks. That'd be fun. Do you think we could come up with 18 more inches of new stuff?

Finally, I've officially hit 100 contacts as a result of the "Red State" rant -- 74-26 in favor. But I know there's another 15 to 20 at work. That's an incredible response. I'll let the bosses know, of course. One of them has been pressing me to do more full-length columns. But I've resisted to this point. Those things take time. And once at work I don't have a lot of that. Still, I enjoy the interaction.

DFO

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