Congratulations are in order, so here's my offering: Congratulations!

I'm a bit U2'd out at the moment ... I'll pause here to let you all recover from the shock ... and am listening to some other stuff and letting it grow on me.

Today's revelations: I really like the CDs by Butterfly Boucher and Jem.

Corwood, my friend, that offer is of course extended to you even though I know you can't take me up on it. If you can swing a cheap flight to Chicago, though, I can guarantee you a place to stay. Probably a ride to/from the airport, too.

Mucho gracias! Friends in Chapel Hill, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco have already made similar offers, too (and what a lucky guy I am to have such great friends!), but, as you say, there is absolutely no way. My wife would love to make it possible, too, but the fact is that we're down a paycheck for the next two months. Oh well. I'm sure they'll be back sometime in the next 16 years.

NY-istas, are there good sites for finding out what live music is playing in NYC?

I usually check the Voice, but I find the print version much more useful than the website... which doesn't really help you. Sorry. The great thing about New York is also the terrible thing about it: it's FULL of great, cool stuff. Even if you were independently wealthy and could devote yourself full time to going to shows w/o worrying about cost you'd still miss a ton of stuff that shouldn't be missed. And that's not even throwing in competing art forms (film, theater, dance, museums). It's a better problem to have than having a dearth of the arts, but it is frustrating, especially when time and money are issues, as they are for most of us.

If I hadn't already used "Tattoo" for the Buffistamix it would be high on my list. I think I proposed "Love Songs, Nothing but Love Songs" for a LITG sidebar consisting of unusual love songs (to tatoos, old refrigerators, marijuana, and I don't remember what else). Sooo many choices.

Thanks to all for the congrats. Send good marriage~ma to my fianceé as she will need it.

Congrats to Jim and Joe!

Congrats to Mr. Boucher, and also to the future Mrs. Boucher, who obviously knows a good thing when she sees it. :-)

And Jim, I had a 10-lb baby with no problems and no drugs, so you can use that to balance out the scary stories labor/delivery stories that people like to stop you with. What is it about having a baby that turns people into the Ancient Mariner?

And I was going to use the Go-Betweens for my unconventional love song but now I'm not so sure. Which locution I cannot think of without thinking of the recent New Scientist Feedback column where the man wrote in to say he used to think he was indecisive but now he's not so sure.

What is it about having a baby that turns people into the Ancient Mariner?

The tiny albatross around our necks for the next 18 years. Ah, I kid. I kid because I love.

And I was going to use the Go-Betweens for my unconventional love song but now I'm not so sure.

Which one? Or should I wait until you make up your mind?

Can we have no more scary delivery stories until further notice?

Absolutely. Sorry, Jim. But the good news is modern medicine filled with everyday miracles and happy endings.

May the arrival of the Jim and Ms. Jim's offspring be a smooth and easy process, absolutely textbook with thoroughly mundane anecdotes.

Congratulations! Welcome to the realm of sleep deprivation.

The further good news is that obviously people have kids fairly easily and often -- look how many of us there are!

I was born with the cord wrapped around my neck, and I'm perfectly fine.

I was born with the cord wrapped around my neck, and I'm perfectly fine.