As if my being “away” from blogging for over two months wasn’t enough torture on the world, the U.S. is officially in a recession. Has been since December 2007. See this article from the LA Times if you don’t believe me. It’s nice to know that it takes this long for an “official” pronouncement of something that the average Joe (heck, even Joe the (not a licensed) plumber) could figure out for themselves months ago. And your Masters of the Obvious degree is from where exactly?