Any gathering where people say "It's nice to see some of the younger people here" and they're talking about me, that is not a group that's going to be too groovy. I'm referring to two events for alumnae of my college I went to this week, a tour of Gracie Mansion, very cool, and a reception afterward at another woman's apartment. This place looked like where Woody Allen lives in his movies, shelf-lined hallways and libraries with overstuffed chairs and moldings and tasteful paint and all the whatnot. Since this gal's from Minnesota, I was expecting coffee and bars, but she had chicken skewers, a full bar, water crackers with salmon and capers and three nice hunks of cheese. Then fresh-baked brownies appeared.

A bit of theology, courtesy of an employee of the library, who was holding the girls in thrall I would have liked to be checking out my books, "It can be a rational decision. Think about it, if you think you's coming back as something better, it's a rational decision to kill yourself."

I have an idea for increasing revenue for TV advertisers. With interactive cable, it should be technically possible for me to specify which ads I'm interested in seeing. I'm not in the market for a car, but maybe I'd rent a car, so it makes more sense to show me a Hertz commercial than a GM one. It could even be within categories, like national restaurant chains. I might plan a visit to Red Lobster if they show me the cheesy biscuits and a pile of shrimp falling through space, but no matter what they say, I'm not going to Applebee's, I hate that place. There's some refinement to be done, because so far, we've got the cable company delivering my eyeballs to advertisers, but it's not linked to any particular show. But what if it was all the reverse from how it works now, I view x, x being a rather high number, of hours of TV a week, and am in the market for this basket of goods. The cable company gets $Y for delivering me, and a portion of that goes to each of the programs I watch. I don't have to watch commercials for stuff I'm not interested in, and advertisers know they've reached me, versus hoping they're running ads on the shows I watch. Not as brilliant as my solution to the kidney shortage problem, but still a win-win.