Leaving the damp, mist-haunted shores of . . . New York, our hero returns to the Emerald City, where . . . it’s currently 25° and snowing.

It’s cool, though. It means I can feel smug about wearing my Minneapolis-rated rabbit-fur hat.

New York was a blast, and it’s just as well the Apple borrowed the Emerald City’s weather — less time bitching about frostbitten ears and toes, more time talking shop with Andy and with Deb, drinking with Brandon and Fran, relaxing in Dad’s living room . . . standing in line with several million screaming children in front of the American Museum of Natural History. Can’t win ’em all.

Wow, the guy across the street actually has an ice scraper. Do I feel underequipped.

(Then there’s this suggested list of winter supplies, just received from Andy:

• one can of windigo-repellent
• one blood-soaked parka (for luck)
• one set of German sand-goggles
• one can of black beans
• one book of short stories by Kawabata Yasunari
• one silk glove
• one bottle of absinthe
• one portable hand-held slide-projector of Manet’s winter impressions

Hmm. Wonder whether I can get all that at REI — and whether they deliver.)

Meanwhile, I’ve received two or three overseas electronic submissions for All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, but as yet no paper slush in the P.O. box, just scam artists trying to sell me credit-card processing services. I’d get on y’all’s case about waiting to submit till the last minute, except that I’d probably be doing the same thing.