I got into the elevator this morning with a woman who had on a heavy knee brace and a cane. As the woman was younger than me, I asked what had happened.

"I tore my ACL," she said, "And fractured my tibia."

"Were you playing professional basketball at the time?" I asked, as these are the sort of injuries athletes get, which is why I know ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament.

"I was jumping up and down while watching the results of American Idol," she said.

"I would stick with the basketball story," I suggested.

Haven't been around much lately, partly because of the Charlatan screenplay, partly because the impending publication of Immortal, (more to come on this, soon) and partly because we were rear-ended on the highway on our way to daughter Becky's graduation a week ago Thursday. By someone who apparently didn't know route 2 came to an end, until her trip came to an end roughly eighteen inches on the wrong side of our rear bumper.