Unable to perform carbon-14 testing on the mystery-vintage chicken, I simply cooked it and ate it -- knowing to cook it hard and with many overpowering spices. It was okay. But my rice-cooker doesn't do such a good job anymore, leaving my rice hard in the center. That's the third or fourth rice cooker we've run through in just a few years.

Bazzukajoe called me from the highway yesterday. He was excited because he had just sighted a Yugo on a flatbed. It was all dressed up as a rally car. He was incredulous when I explained to him that the car started its life as a Fiat 128 -- an honest-to-goodness rally car.

I've been packing boxes all weekend, finding many long-forgotten treasures, discarding many more.