Two gems from The New Yorker:

Regarding Crichton's new book on the climate change "conspiracy":

What "State of Fear" demonstrates is how hard it is to construct a narrative that would actually justify current American policy. In this way, albeit unintentionally, Crichton has written a book that deserves to be taken seriously.

Regarding Bernie Kerik (Homeland Security ex-nominee):

"Officials have gotten into trouble for sexual misconduct, abusing their authority, personal bankruptcy, failure to file documents, waste of public funds, receiving substantial unrecorded gifts, and association with organized crime figures. It is rare for anyone to be under fire on all seven of the above issues." (Henry Stern)

In other news, haruspex (accurately) characterizes me as "someone-who-doesn't-get-Perl-and-probably-never-will". To be fair, I *did* "get it" back in the mid-'90s... Musta been all those drugs I took in '99 that turned me off of it. I do like this quote from Larry Wall:

Perl isn't really about safety. It's about getting where you're going, and enjoying the trip. It's more important to be a good driver than to have seven feet of sponge rubber all around your car.

I do need to do some Perl work here and there, and the question I have for someone knowledgeable (haruspex?) is this: are there any good guidelines for designing an OO interface in Perl? I've browsed around on the 'net and while it seems possible to do pretty much anything, I don't use Perl enough to know which package(s) are help up as good examples of OO Perl. Any pointers would be much appreciated (& acknowledged)...

--titus