Hooray! It’s October, which really is a terrific month. It seems to get better and better every year, October. (Or maybe it’s just that all the others get worse and worse, and maybe October does, too. But a bit less dramatically so.) A smarter, more contemplative person might note that as we get older we’re more inclined to appreciate stuff like falling leaves, and the slowing of nature’s life cycles. One might make a date to go walk in the woods somewhere, to take full advantage of this fleeting blip of pleasant weather we get before the gloom and bitter cold of too-short winter days afflict us all with seasonal affective disorder. Again. READ MORE

I had no plans to buy an iPad-I have no plans to ever buy an iPhone, and if I do you are authorized to strike me in the face with something sharp and rusty-so I did not really follow the frenzy of speculation on all the functions what we until very recently referred to as the Apple Tablet might contain. Still, I'm a little taken aback by the immediate and vocal lack of enthusiasm for the product. What does it lack? What was everyone hoping for that did not materialize? This is a very rough thought that I may or may not refine, so take it as such, but the iPad is a lot like Barack Obama: Everyone was able to project their own fantasies and aspirations on a product with which they were mostly unfamiliar, only to sour on it once they realized that it did not live up to their impossible expectations. Only with the iPad it took about seven minutes for the disappointment to set in. I don't know what that says about our accelerated culture or how we confuse hype and excitement for the tangible realities of life, but it says something. I mean, probably. Like I said, I'm still trying to work it all out.