By REG HENRY, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As you know, the best minds in Washington, D.C., are working to fix the economy. That strongly suggests to me that the recession is going to be around for a while yet.
So how are we to behave in our reduced state of prosperity? What etiquette should we observe? To answer these questions, I am writing an important and timely book, "Good Manners That Poor You Can Afford."

As you know, the best minds in Washington, D.C., are working to fix the economy. That strongly suggests to me that the recession is going to be around for a while yet.
So how are we to behave in our reduced state of prosperity? What etiquette should we observe? To answer these questions, I am writing an important and timely book, "Good Manners That Poor You Can Afford."

As the son of a journalist who became an ink-stained wretch himself, I take the current crisis in the newspaper industry rather personally.

Until my son Jim pointed it out, I did not realize that I have the timely good fortune to have the trendy Sully look. "You got the mustache, Dad, and the silver hair thing going on," he said.

As a typical newspaper is full of doom and gloom, the point of my column -- and perhaps I should have explained this earlier -- is to attempt to lighten the general despair with fun and laughter, even on serious subjects.
Just last week, I wrote a stimulus-package column that provided laffs galore for those headed to the poorhouse. For some reason it didn't go over very well.

(ITAL) I've handed over today's column to my friends in the drunken sailor community, who have an important message for America. (ENDITAL)
A lot of water has passed under the keel since we in the drunken sailor community last asked our favorite matey to hand over the wheel of his column for a day.

When Rush Limbaugh said he wanted Barack Obama to fail, the clanging of the stupidity meter roused me to action.
Usually, I have the stupidity meter set to mute when it comes to the Vesuvius of Vacuity because everything he says is bound to set off the alarm and the dog can't sleep with all the stupid racket.

Inaugurations are extraordinary events. They are as much for the people as for the new president, which is as it should be. We the people want to be involved, and not just because we are desperate for entertainment in the dead of winter.

When it comes to George W. Bush's last hurrahs in the waning days of his administration, I am much in favor of the "last" and not so keen on the "hurrahs."
But it is a time for magnanimity, not malice, and for once this president has provided some leadership.

When I was the editor of a small daily newspaper in California about 20 years ago, I was asked out to lunch one day by an earnest young fellow who, as it turned out, wanted to lobby me to put a warning label on the paper's horoscopes.