WITH BEST HOPES FOR THE NEW YEAR. I stayed in, taking notes for fiction and talking for hours with the Rat. It was great. …Unqualified Offerings has its best-of-blogs list up, and a best-of-comics list as well. Go thither!

In worst-of, rather than best-of, news, here’s a link roundup on the revisions to the Justice Department’s definition of torture. Haven’t read yet but will soon.

On Wednesday, I’m flying to sunny California for two weeks to visit Ratty (!!!!). If you are in the greater L.A. area, live in fear, I will be near. Blogging will likely be lightish but not nonexistent, and I have several projects in the pipeline that I hope to be able to post soon: two comics pieces, plus some more comics reviews; some stuff about Alberto Gonzales and torture and Bush; and new fiction that is good, rather than bad.