My father has posted his very first eBay listing: 50 decorative tea tins, mint condition. I'm so proud of him.

By the way, if you need any tea tins—perhaps for a school project, or an art installation—you have until next Thursday to bid on them.

Over at Talking Points Memo Cafe, Gene Sperling lays out the problems with the proposals to repeal the estate tax:

The nation is at war and troops have been having trouble getting the safest equipment. Child poverty has been on the rise for four straight years. Deficits are projected to total $4 trillion in the next ten years, our entitlement challenge is unresolved, working wages have been stagnating or declining, and fixing the estate tax for the top 3 of every 1000 estates in 2011 is what we should rush to the floor of the Senate in the summer of 2006?

Anne reports a disturbing trend in modern communications:

Apparently "add up" is the new "touch base:" "Let's add up this afternoon to see where you are on the research."

I've heard it 5 times this morning, from 2 different people.

At least with "touch base" one can kind of see the meaning, even if the phrase doesn't exactly hit one out of the park. But "add up?" I have no idea.

One of my daily digests contained a link to "How to choose the best database for your business." By Oracle.

Golly. Which database do you suppose they recommend? Think it's MySql?

In her column today (sub.req.):

There's no way to teach someone not to shoot an unarmed woman or child. If somebody doesn't already know why they shouldn't murder a baby, it's not clear that a refresher course will help.

If you're not from Chicago, you should visit in early June or mid-September. It's 22°C (72°F) and crystal clear. Tomorrow I'll be in fog central; today I'm enjoying the best of the Midwest.

The California Court of Appeal, Sixth District, has reversed a lower-court order that blogger Jason O'Grady had to turn over his sources for a story he wrote about Apple Computer:

Online writers are protected by the state's shield law for reporters as well as by the 1st Amendment, the state Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled, reversing a lower court decision.

Apple subpoenaed the e-mail provider of Jason O'Grady, publisher of O'Grady's PowerPage, an Internet site that posted information in 2004 about an unreleased Apple product.

The ruling establishes that Web reporters have the same right to protect the confidentially of sources as other reporters, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Cool.

The case is O'Grady v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County (184 kB, PDF).

It's great to be home. So good, in fact, that I did almost nothing of commercial or professional value for four days straight.

I'm back now. I've got a lot to catch up on, not least of which is a two-week pile of stuff in my office. I also have a collection of photos to go through from the last three weeks or so, like this one of the New Hampshire State Capitol:

But first, I have to pay bills and send out invoices.