And the sun being over the yardarm. . .

. . .it would be appropriate to raise a toast to Patrick O'Brian. Tom reminds us here that today is his birthday. He's read them all, the whole Aubrey/Maturin corpus. I've read most of them but not quite all. Now that I know there won't be any more, I have slowed down considerably. The Yellow Admiral awaits but I won't start it for a while yet. It seems to be a quirk unique to me. I don't know anyone else with a crotchet like this but when an author I enjoy dies, I seldom finish reading all his works. There's something about knowing there won't be any more new books. A very sad feeling. I like to keep at least one in reserve. (There may be an article in this for some aspiring psychology student. Psychology Ptoday would eat it up.)

Gentlemen: I give you Patrick O'Brian; God bless him!