I emailed Jody in my typical frantic, brusque way a few days ago, wondering if he could jot down the ingredients for that lovely salsa he made for a group of my friends a few years ago. I'm fairly certain that it was three years ago, but I could be wrong about the date; it was the night that Heather and Jody played dueling Iron Chefs in Thomas' kitchen, and a lot of food resulted. I remembered nothing but the salsa, which was unlike any salsa I'd ever had before.

Huntsville street names have a disturbing fluidity that I've never seen in any other town. Roads randomly change names at intersections, as they cross highways, or when the urge struck the builders. How else to explain that University and Pratt are the same roads, just on different sides of Memorial Parkway? Or that Zierdt Road is Shelton Road, and that Madison Boulevard is the old Highway 20, and Rideout Road is now Research Park Boulevard?

Recent events have forced a bit of discussion with the Feline Overlords, most of which involved my making intelligible sounds in the form of requests, all of which were ignored or drowned out by the sound of insistent purring.

Three and a half hours' worth of meandering south and east on the back roads will bring you to a highway, which leads to a smaller road, which leads to a gravel road. Even if you turn off onto the gravel road, you might miss the driveway that appears to lead to nothing but a copse of trees.

Like many of the good things in life, there are no signs pointing to it that say "This is where you need to be." Just a mailbox and a fence for the horses.

Every few months, I feel compelled to turn the mailbag over, shake it out a bit, and blow out the crumbs. Every now and then, a letter actually falls out. Most of the time, I forget to answer it; those that I actually remember to answer are rarely answered in anything resembling a straightforward fashion.

I won't sport with your intelligence any more - let's get to the mailbag.

Jay, of parts unknown, writes in response to my rice-rice-baby entry "Turn down the stereotype; we can't hear you":

Newsletter just came out - Steely Dan will be touring the States this summer. It has been approximately four minutes since I last breathed. I will resume breathing shortly.

Currently, the closest dates to AL are in Chicago and Washington DC, but the DC dates conflict with this year's dragon*con. More dates are supposed to be booked later, and I would think that an Atlanta, Nashville, or New Orleans date would be amongst them.