A big announcement

I've been waiting for just the right time to post this. I don't know if this is that right time, but here goes, anyway: I've tried Folger's crystals, and they really are as good as regular coffee.

No, wait, that's not the right big announcement. (It's not even true.) Let's try again: Kerry is pregnant.

At this point, we normally get three questions:

1. When is Kerry due?
Her due date is 27 June.

2. Do you know the sex?
Not yet. We should find out in early February. At this point, we're both happy to find out the gender. It seems to me that it will be just as much of a surprise whether we learn via sonogram or at the birth. And if surprise is really the objective, this opens up the even more surprising possibility of the sonogram determination being wrong.

3. What about names?
We won't really know until we see the little critter in the flesh, but we're both in mind for something traditional, a classical name. So the current front-runners are Genghis for a boy, and Paris for a girl. In the interim, Kerry has chosen the moniker "tinyD", so the baby registry will definitely include gold chains and four-finger rings.

We're both terribly excited about this. (The good kind of "terribly", natch.)

Pat Oliphant on President Ford - literally

The text is a little hard to read, but Pat Oliphant wrote/drew a nice cartoon in honor of President Ford. It's a great story, and a wonderful portrait.

O Tannenbaum - Public enemy #1

It was our great pleasure to have Scott, Carlie, Lili, and Mama & Papa B here for Christmas. Lili sleeps by herself now, so the Holler was full; someone had to sleep on an inflatable mattress in the living room. We offered to do so, and even tried to be bossy about it, but Scott and Carlie insisted that they would sleep there. To their chagrin: at about one in the morning, our Christmas tree fell on them.

They were very gracious about it, righting the tree and going back to sleep - on the couches, away from the tree, thank you - without even waking anyone in the house. But the signs were clear when I came down in the morning: inflatable mattress cast aside, sheets on the sofa, and a tree-shaped stamp of pine needles on the floor.

By all accounts this was an unprovoked attack by a malicious tree. The Furryous Two were upstairs with us, Lili was asleep in her crib, and the thought of Scott and Carlie pulling the tree over onto themselves is just too weird to countenance. No, this was vicious, arboreal assault.

The moral of the story, faithful reader, is not to always secure a tree to the wall. Rather, the lesson is that, if Travis and Kerry say we should sleep on the living room floor, let us.

A chance for Travis, captain of Elkridge, to show his quality

For a motivating setting, there's nothing like being the only person in the office on the last day before Christmas holiday.

I demonstrate my dedication and discipline by posting to The Hollerer.

Christmastime is here

It's almost here, anyway. The tree is decorated; Kerry's parents arrive this evening, with Scott, Carlie, and Lili coming Saturday; the last big presents finally arrived last night (sort of).

I don't know why I haven't posted anything. Or, to get to the root of the matter, I don't know why I haven't had any thoughts I wanted to share. Nothing's changed in that respect; this is just a post to let the faithful readers know that I am still here and that we are OK.

Oh, but quite important, The Economist holiday double issue is at the newsstand. I've already read the article on country music. Delight.