Last Saturday, I attended two weddings. The first was of Kevin Watkins, the library's crackerjack Network Administrator. Kevin was most dignified; I was proud of him. It was a lovely service, and the Best Woman (Kevin's sister) did a particularly fine job. The bride, in the grand tradition of brides, was radiant.

The second service was for a couple who have lived together for the past 25 years. It took place by a tree, along a river. Participants read poems from the Bible, from the Sufi poet Rumi, from Gerard Manley Hopkins, and from various other sources.

Several people have sent me information about a recent court case: some librarians at Minneapolis Public sued the library for sexual harassment. The reason: widespread patron viewing of pornography on Internet terminals.

Some of the folks who sent me this were gleeful: liberals want unfiltered terminals, but think when other people look at a picture that might offend a feminist, it's sexual harassment. Pick one!

Others were more libertarian: these librarians are arguing FOR censorship. Isn't that a betrayal of all they stand for?

My daughter (13 years old) and my son (7) have red hair.

They didn't used to. They started out blonde. Yesterday, Maddy had hair the color of honey, a sort of golden brown. Perry had hair that was moving in the same direction, but was still much lighter.

Well, shortly after I went to work today, Maddy decided to dye her hair. Perry said that sounded great. He wanted to cut his hair short, dye it black, then maybe work up some spikes. But it happened that Maddy had some red dye left, and we were fresh out of black.

Back in college, I had an American History course that took an odd twist. Our teacher wanted our final project to be a sort of historical skit. The students got to choose among various roles, but those roles were pretty vague. I, for instance, volunteered for the character of a gentleman farmer. The play was set in New England, around 1774.

The teacher gave us various scenes, but no script. For instance, he said, "Suppose you just finished dinner with your father. In walks a guy who favors Revolution. What do you say?"