Santayana lives on in yet another high-stakes psycho-drama unfolding at Castle 1526 (one absurd enough to send Joe-maha hastily plotting his return trip to the cornfields and conference rooms of distant Sarpy).

The dynamic is fascinating: despite being substantially weakened by medical catastrophe, Helen has heroically dedicated her daily efforts to keeping Vito removed from every aspect of her life.

At first it was sort of amusing: he'd try to help and she'd pretend he wasn't there. Hardy har. Then it kept up, with her shutting him down at every turn. Then it got tiresome. Soon you couldn't help but smell the stink of contempt in every tortured exchange.

I talked to RoseAnne about it and quickly found out she has the very same stink about her. With her whispering constantly in Helen's ear, I must conclude there is no hope for the situation.

So I'm bowing out -- though I still find it immensely fascinating, probably because of the enormous irony of it all. If Vito's non-retirement from the Post Office teaches us anything, it's this: the worse you treat him, the longer he hangs around.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Joe-maha is much more sensitive to the lessons of history, so don't expect him to come back to Brooklyn for another 15 years... At the earliest.