After a one-week hiatus, James Lileks resumes The Bleat, and promptly reminds us why his presence was so sorely missed.

Stopped off at Dreamhaven, a sci-fi / comic store that always seems like such a sad place to me. It’s full of what-ifs, none of which will ever happen, all of which make the plain flat world outside its doors seem so infuriatingly normal. Sci-fi and comics are like a consolation prize for people with impractical imaginations - hey, we think of these things too, and here they are. Ripping yarns and silver spacecraft and women with impossible bosoms in leotards. And over here is the really smart stuff that’s better than most of the serious novels or short stories, and most people will never know how good it truly is. Welcome home; nice to see you; now open a page and get lost.

Sense of wonder and pathos, all in a paragraph. As a reader, I love it. As a writer and blogger, I despair; he makes it all look so easy. If I devote myself to the craft of writing, study the masters, and practice, practice, practice, then someday ... I still won't be nearly as good as James.

Yeah, but let's see Lileks write a recursive descent parser. (Of course, then we get into someone else of whom I'm insanely jealous; and Damian's both a better programmer and a better writer. It never ends.)