Since my friend Tavis's death last month, I had been in a complete funk. I'd been one of the group of friends who cleaned out his apartment, and that was really, really depressing. So I was just churning around, unproductive, for weeks.

Then, a poke in the eye from the universe, in the form of a brain-damaged letter to the editor of our local paper by a dittohead claiming that global warming is a myth. It was truly spectacular in its ignorance of the conventions both of English and science. (I would link to the original letter, but it seems not to be available on the Sakonnet Times site.)

You can get the gist — if not the full partisan rancor — from the excerpts in my response.

A little step, perhaps, out of a cave and back into the light.