Lots of people -- some of them I knew well -- have failed to achieve this milestone. So I'm grateful for the good health and long life (so far) which I have enjoyed ...

I got several calls from family and a friend to wish me a happy -- Folks, keep those cards and letters coming in! -- So far having a pleasant day, and Adrienne cooked us lunch. The casual visitor here may not appreciate the earth-shattering significance of ...

... the significance of Adrienne cooking lunch.

While I cook us many meals, and enjoy having somebody cooking for me -- it seems a loving and neighborly thing to do -- Adrienne, the woman, doesn't like to ccok. She could live an eternity on yogurt and apples, I'm certain of it. Maybe a can of tuna fish. For many years, on certain years, around Christmas/Thanksgiving time, I might get a vegetable pot pie made with a cat face cut into the crust ... if I was lucky.

Some years, no cat-face pie. Too bad. I was looking forward to that cat-face pie.

You know those stories your mama used to threaten you with, when you were very little. No, not the stories about the-- Wait a minute. Let's start over. You know how your mama used to threaten you around Christmastime with the claim that bad children would receive a lump of coal? (What was with this lump of coal? In Texas nobody uses coal. It's natural gas, man. Why the hell Santa would bring coal?)

Well, a year with no cat-face pie seemed like getting the lump of coal in the stocking. Just out of luck, for now. Maybe next year ...

In the meantime, I'm almost 59, and very happy to be here, thank you very much, and I'd like to thank the members of the academy, and my mother, and ...