I wanted to do a bit more blogging today, but I'm going away for a week and I had to wrap a lot of things up. No, this isn't another "retirement" (though a week is longer than my retirement actually lasted). I'll be back and blogging on April 9 or 10.

Besides the obvious doings in Rome, I guess I'm going to miss the publication of Jane Fonda's memoir, which hits stores Tuesday. I knew this was coming, and I've assumed it was going to draw a lot of crazies out of the woodwork, but the failing health of the Pope might put the kibosh on their desire to rehash Vietnam for the ten millionth time. Or maybe not -- the Swift Boat liars must be missing the spotlight, no? (By the way, the recently published book by Jerome Corsi, who co-wrote the Swifties' book, is #8,637 at Amazon as I write this. Fonda's book is #324, and it's not even out yet. The Corsi book is about Iran -- yeah, he's a scholar of international relations, didn't you know? -- and he's billed as "Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D." La-di-da!)

I never got to blog about New York magazine's cover story on Bernard Kerik -- hell, I never even got to read it. Let me know how it is.

I meant to write something about this creepy Boston Globe article about the very religious, very conservative Michael and MarCee Wilkerson and their kids, who live in Ohio. A lot of lefties think that if we ever have a religious war in this country, the Christian soldiers will mostly be Bud-drinkin' blue-collar NASCAR fans; as this article makes clear, they might just as well have grown up in neighborhoods where people drive BMWs and the moms look like Lands' End models (see the photo in the link). This conversation takes place chez Wilkerson:

On the test, Brittany says, she answered that the gradual evolution of human beings from other species is a possibility, although she and her family believe that the human race began with God's creation of Adam and Eve.

''I almost wanted to say it's not true," Brittany says of Darwin's theory, later at the house. ''That's so much crap. Who makes it up?"

''It's a myth," answers her father, who did not question or rebuke Brittany for using a vulgar word.

''I think He could do it in seven days," MarCee says of the Genesis timetable for creation.

Dad prides himself on never having drunk a beer in his life (apparently he forgot that Jesus turned the water into wine, and good wine at that); Mom says abortion is wrong even in cases of rape or incest. The parents don't want the kids dating outside the faith, and even inside the faith there are caveats:

Concerning interracial dating, MarCee pauses before saying, ''I want to be open to that. My point is: Is he a good kid, a good person, and respects her? But number one, does he have Christ as the head of his life. That's the most important in her life."

"I want to be open to that." Yikes. Sorry, folks -- it's 2005. That's not good enough.

And on a lighter note, I never linked the brilliant Robert Friedman column from the St. Petersburg Times about his living will and "Bobby's Law," though many of you undoubtedly saw it linked elsewhere. Last weekend I linked a very earnest columnist's will and testament; Friedman's is the flip side:

Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here's what mine says:

* In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.

* I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts....

The whole thing is genius, and the guy deserves a Pulitzer.

See you in a week....