A day of science. While Cookie and Mojo ran horticultural experiments at the Bronx Maniacal Gardens, I was consulting a neurosurgeon on the West Side of Manhattan.

And still no genetically modified escarole...

Anyway, Saturday's MRI results are in: the herniation that was busting my back throughout December and January seems to have shrunk dramatically (which would explain the diminished pain over the last two weeks). Still, this is strange: the January CT scan showed that the blown out material was calcified. Hardened. Bone-like. A rock. Where did it go in a few short weeks?

No one can explain. More experimentation is clearly warranted!

So today's conclusion: the MRI must have missed it; as for surgery, we'll wait and see if symptoms return. Following that meeting I brought the entire set of radiology films to the other doctor's office; I now eagerly await his impression of this interesting situation.

In the meantime, I'm going to ask the boys to go back to the Bronx and whip up a crop of giant broccoli rabe -- growing season is coming up fast, and Guido's planning his garden.

We have the technology!