What if he has the same name as dozens of other people on Facebook? What if you do actually manage to find some old E-mail address or something, only he never responds, leaving you to wonder if he just hates you so much that he's content to leave you wallowing in your angst for the remainder of your days!?!

I for one realized some time ago that if someone from my distant past tried to apologize to me, my response might be, "It's too late now; I have to live with what you did to me, and you have to live with the fact that you did it, and I can only hope your children embrace a different set of values than you once did."

even though they are at times so very astute. (This isn't one of those times, at least not for me.)

I hope that when Mr. Bolling retires he gives Louis a vaguely uplifting sendoff.

when I was the only bidder for that cheap copy of "Now, Endsville" that finally (finally!) appeared on eBay.

I'm kind of wondering how much longer this series will be. And soon I'll know!

This really does show no sign of ending, does it? (If you're really getting tired of it, just repeat to yourself: It's not Kansas O'Flaherty. It's not Kansas O'Flaherty.)

If you were here last week, sadly my copy of "Now, Endsville" has been delayed in transit and I cannot as of yet say how much longer this story is going to be. (Perhaps someone else could volunteer this information?)

I can say that "Joy Ride", the extended tale that made up a significant portion of Ms. Lay's first book, went on for a whole 60 pages. It seems unlikely that one will end up in Salon, though - it's okay (and easily outclasses the adventures of Miss Taken and company), but it contains a surprising amount of rather risque material, and I really doubt it would work well in a weekly format.

If you plan to sleep soundly at all during the next week, avoid putting Mr. Tomorrow's caricature of Palin alongside his earlier reasonably-accurate caricature of McCain's death rictus. Oy.

If you don't remember the DigiScents iSmell of 2001, a device which was supposed to let your PC emit different odours upon visiting different web sites, perhaps its entry in PC World's "Top 25 Worst Tech Prodcuts of All Time" will refresh your memory.

I mean, John McCain in a clown costume? Is the reader supposed to look at this and say "Ha ha, his lack of sartorial knowledge is a metaphor for his obtuse policies!" or something? Maybe I'm just thinking about this too hard.

(But there's still no denying that the guy is darn creepy when he smiles.)

I have now seen the future, as it were, and if nothing gets skipped there will be something else up on November 7. Some of the artwork to come is kind of nifty, but if you think you can guess how this story ends, you're probably guessing right.

If you're really desperate for something else, waylay.com does have an extensive archive of old Story Minute strips, even though the text is sort of tiny and hard to read.

And for something much much worse that used to be on Salon but isn't Kansas, click my name to step back ten years and relive the adventures of The Hero Santon!

But probably very good at making choices? No, I don't buy that. For every person who makes a lot of money (really a lot, not just so much that he or she comfortably well off) there are probably hundreds of others who are just as good as making choices but simply did not have the good fortune to speak to the right people at the right time about the right opportunities.

Heck, some of those people who make a lot of money might be downright terrible at making decisions and have simply had that much more good fortune to compensate.

So, no, I don't see what writing a letter could really accomplish, as the only advice one would be likely to receive would probably be of the practical, common sense variety that has been tossed around since time immemorial ("buy low, sell high!"). Granted, there are some people who sorely need practical, common sense advice, especially from a person who can convince them that he knows what he's talking about. But extreme wealth is by no means borne of good decision making alone.

The scary thing is, I can imagine some undecided voter reading this comic and suddenly being swayed to vote for McCain. Sillier things have worked.

I had nearly forgotten that Ms. Lay could draw humanoids without overbites. It has been a while.

I'm sure we all had lots of good fun with it, but time to move on now, right?

that this is another rerun from a number of years ago.

I must admit there is an awful lot of fresh and clever stuff in the archives that I wouldn't mind seeing again. Remember that run of strips about the man who thought his reflection was trying to kill him?

I'd pay to see that. (Not that I have anything against Gore, of course. I'm just saying.)

I at least find it rather unsettling that the sample chapter depicts the strenuous efforts of a woman whose slender proportions would surely already be the envy of a considerable segment of the population?

Nonetheless, I can sympathize with the desire to see strenuous efforts bear fruit.

But if we have truly seen the end of that powerfully moving and frequently world-busting Story Minute of yore, then perhaps Ms. Lay is at least well-deserving of her newfound piece of mind, having given so much already.

Mayhap if this takes off we shall see the graphic memoir of the effective but non-sensational workout plan for men, describing the actions of some guy who can afford to exercise six hours a day, or something.

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