I’m having lots of technical problems with this site, which I won’t bore you with. Meanwhile, spammers are busy flooding my archives with their advertisements. Although it’s a half-measure and not very elegant, I have succeeded in blocking all comments on most of the old entries. Apologies if you’re trying to comment. (You can always email me your thoughts at plevine@umd.edu.) One day soon, I’ll be on a new server, with the new version of MovableType, having deleted the latest 500 or more spams–and all these trials will be forgotten.