BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN?

Raven is wearing something on his head that looks like a set of earmuffs.

What the fuck, Rave?

I wave my hand between his head and the computer screen, and he takes off the muffs.

"It's spring--you know, SPRING--when a young bird's fancy turns, etc. Except that I am not a young bird. And I just do not want to hear the cackling cacaphony blasting in every tree around here."

Now, Rave. You wouldn't be just a little envious, would you?

"Naw. I am too old for that, too."

So what are you doing in this provincial Mexican spring that's better?

"Cheering on Chavez the Peacemaker. He raised an enormous ruckus, got everybody's attention by moving a fistful of battalions to the Colombian border--then torpedoed the US agenda of Let's You and Him Fight by becoming the peacemaker in Santo Domingo--complete with his singing of a merengue."

Fabulous. Smartest guy in the hemisphere, with the exception of Fidel.

"These days that's not saying much. With everybody thinking with his wallet--or his genitals. I hate spring!"

He puts the muffs back on. It's no use talking to that bird.