Oly Oly Free, Bloggo

I write from room 1450 in the Omni Parker House Hotel in Boston for the good and simple reason that just as you don't turn down a hot biscuit from a Southern cook, so if the hotel supplies free Internet access, not to use it would not exactly lose it....

But it might be seen as rude.

Or it might not.

Probably, it wouldn't.

But still.

I mean, the Ethernet connector is hanging in a neat little black bag attached to a pants hanger in the closet. Having taken it out and determined its function and then declining to employ it would be like tearing open a condom and not using it.

The shame. The misunderstanding.

So here I am at midnight ( 9 p.m., PDT) drawing on the full resources of the establishment.

The day in summary:

1) Gave presentation to National Society of Newspaper Columnists concerning my columnists survey. Repeatedly used the advice given me by Bryan K. Whaley, USF colleague and quantitative guru, who said I should handle any heckling by saying "The data is the data" followed by "As in so much Social Science this is a heuristic exercise in the sense that the point is not the questions it answers but the even more fascinating questions it raises." The audience sensed my immense self-love and personal satisfaction in merely being me and accepted my remarks on those terms.

2) Had a nice lunch at the Suffolk University Law School at which Ariana Huffington made remarks. She won my heart by saying "media have" -- it's plural, people, particularly in this age of proliferating delivery systems -- and for suggesting the front page of the New York Times can be the place important stories go to die if the paper chooses to do one big hit and then fails to obsessively follow up follow up follow up.

3) Toured the John and John Quincy Adams birthplaces, an experience that speaks for itself.

4) Attended the NSNC awards banquet at which Jennifer Buchwald accepted the group's lifetime achievement award on behalf of her father Art Buchwald, which he had actually been given in the spring when he went into hospice to die. But he hasn't died. In fact, she said he left hospice yesterday and should now be on Martha's Vineyard beginning his summer vacation. The group graciously agreed to overlook his insouciance.

And so I return the tool, i.e,. the Ethernet link, to its holster, having given it the respect of use.