Wherein I return from vacation

When I didn't post anything for almost two weeks, you might reasonably have assumed that I had given up on blogging because it was cutting into my VH1-watching schedule. However, in fact I was on vacation, and failed to post anything warning you about this fact due to a combination of a temperamental home internet connection and the shocking development that people wanted me to get work done before I left. Sorry! Nice to see you again!

Anyway, now I'm back. After 8 days away from TV, the Internet, and English-language tabloid magazines, I was afraid that I'd suffer that disturbing sense of cultural dislocation when I returned, like all of a sudden Britney would be cute again and I'd feel like I was an alien in my own country. I remember having this in a major way in the summer of 1994, when I was out of the country when Forrest Gump became popular--I thought "Forrest Gump" was the frumpiest-sounding phrase I'd ever heard, and was concerned that perhaps this meant that frumpy was now cool, and if that were the case, how could any of us find our way in the world?

Luckily, though, no tremendous cultural changes seem to have occured in the past week. Here's my checklist:

• TomKat: still insane.
• Courtney Love: still on drugs.
• Baby Panda: has not been squished by mama.

All is right with the world!