just gone 7 and I'm up and having breakfast (sort of). It's hard to be hungry first thing when you wake up, and smart not to eat too much before going on a long b-line ride with a few hundred cell phone-yacking, giddy first years who can't yet distinguish asses from mouths, not even their own. Not that all first years are like that, by any stretch; it's just a virtual inevitability that that's the kind that will end up on MY bus.

To all the rest of you joining me in this back-to-school thing today, good luck and godspeed, someday we'll all be free AND smart.