So M’ris, Mark, Tim, and Amber came over tonight for dinner. We had salad. We had lefse. We had chocolate pots de creme. And we had broiled flank steak. Well… we almost had broiled flank steak. The steak was about halfway done when I heard a couple of sharp pops, accompanied by bright flashes of light coming from behind the oven. “Ummm… that didn’t sound good,” said my guests. “No, it didn’t,” I said, as I watched white wisps of smoke wafting up from behind the oven.

After waiting a bit to make sure that the apartment wasn’t going to catch on fire, it seemed best to go to La Bodeguita del Medio and get some Cuban food and mojitos (“Mojito”: Spanish for “a drink that makes everything all better”). So all in all it was a successful evening. I returned Diamond Age to M’ris, and lent her the Sandman series. In turn, M’ris and Tim gave me some David Brin reading recommendations. I had read Earth many years ago, but Tim assures me that the Uplift War series is much better. Speaking of Brin, he also has a very interesting essay on his site, “The Case for a Cheerful Libertarianism“. It’s really quite good. Almost enough to make one become a libertarian, if one were just a little more inclined that way. Actually, Brin’s brand of cheerful pragmatism has a lot going for it in general. Very few people like humorless ideologues, no matter what their political persuasion. And nobody likes to be called stupid or evil. One wonders why calling one’s opponents stupid or evil is such a popular debating tactic. But then, of course, one is forced to take a look at one’s own writings, and one begins to feel depressed. One thinks it best to call it a night.