Well, shit. Just as I was feeling a little better about myself, salving my bruised self-esteem, some fucking reader (Paul Scheele, to be exact) has to send me a link to this Slate article -- What Is Narcissistic Personality Disorder? -- that says NPD is no defense for homicide. Among other things, it reports:

"As the disorder's name suggests, an NPD sufferer believes he or she is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nine telltale signs, including unrealistic fantasies of living a more glamorous life, a desperate craving for admiration, and a complete lack of empathy for others."

Just for the record, I want to make it perfectly clear that she never threatened to kill me.

Thanks to the many who have wondered where I've been, not least myself. In fact, I have exciting news to relate, though this can be but a preliminary report. The Truth is, I have been involved in extensive reading and research which has led to the founding (I am the Founder, OK?) of a new International University for the Phenomenological Hermeneutics of the Unconscious Cathexis of Kangaroos. Within six months, PHUCK U. will be an accredited degree-granting Institute at the level of Doctoral Studies.

While most elements of the PHUCK U. acronym instantiate to household vocabulary (to readers of EGR anyway), the Australian Aborigine term "Kangaroo" warrants some explication. Evidently, when Captain Cook and his Team first visited the island continent, they asked one of the natives, though an interpreter naturally, what those large-tailed jumping things were. The informant replied: kan-ga-roo. In the Aborigine tongue, or one variant, as there must have been several, one would think, kan-ga-roo means: "I don't know." Or, as we might say in more current parlance: "Search me."

As the need for a more globalized understanding of interpersonal relations has become ever more pressing -- to say the least, wouldn't you say? -- I am terribly excited... no, that sounds wrong, doesn't it? I am pleased to announce the establishment of an Institution... no, wait... of an Institute of Higher Learning that will be devoted entirely to answering the most critical questions of our time. Search Me? PHUCK U.

Like all great ideas, it was inevitable. In this crucial undertaking... no, let's say endeavor, I am merely the tool of manifest destiny. More will be revealed shortly. In the meantime, feel free to send your initial tuition deposit of $1,000 to:

RageBoy
760F West Moorhead Circle
Boulder, CO 80305

Thank you.