Welcome my friend Michael, hopefully

My friend Michael, in NYC, will be posting on the blog starting today, assuming he can figure out the software! Michael's a Republican, a good one, who sometimes clashes me with me on things, but even when he's seriously wrong he's still always interesting ;-). Seriously, I think you'll enjoy his intermittent input on days like today when I'm in Chicago and online for a bit of the day. Michael is particularly good at finding great little gems buried in the NY press (NYT, Daily News, Post, etc.)

As for Chris in Paris, he's currently down in the south of France sunning with his lovely wife (we hate them) - apparently there's no Internet access in his little cabana - so he'll be back in 2 weeks. JOHN