As I was saying......

Six months seems a nice round number to have been silent. In the interim: $6 billion a month on the war in Iraq, thousands more dead (with civilians, probably tens of thousands), not one but two storms of the century, the largest migration to the North since the mid 20th Century – in about a month, and a general sense of growing darkness and anarchy.

As Yogi Berra Roshi said, "This is like deja vu all over again."

Or, coincidentally enough, to be sitting with Mumonkan case 14. Nanchuan's Cat.

The case: Nanchuan saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting over a cat. Seizing the cat, he told the monks: "If any of you can say a word of Zen, you will save the cat." No one answered. Nanchuan cut the cat in two. That evening Zhaozhou returned to the monastery and Nanchuan told him what had happened. Zhaozhou removed his sandals, placed them on his head, and walked out. Nanchuan said: "If you had been there, you would have saved the cat."

My friend Mr. Sam Sarrah says, “The cat is dead. How can you kill the cat?”