I spoke with Christian Ruzich, The Cub Reporter, who recently lost his home in the wild fires that ravaged southern California. He is alive and doing as well as can be expected. Ruz and his wife, Darryl were in Europe when their house went up in flames. Would you believe that Christian works in the fire-insurance business? Fortunately, they were able to place a call to a co-worker before the fire claimed their home, and Darryl's wedding dress, as well as many of their photographs were saved. (As I mentioned earlier, so were their dogs as well as their automobiles.)

Instead of flying directly home, Christian and D chose to stay in Paris for a few days. They went to the Louvre, and then went to the movies. They needed an escape. So they went to see Clint Eastwood's skillfully constructed, yet emotionally opaque, "Mystic River." Talk about a pick-me-up. Yeesh.

Ruz is back home in California now, and he is doing OK. One thing that is certain is that Christian has been absolutely humbled by the amount of support that he has recieved from the internet community. I suggested to him that the love he's gotten is a reflection of what a good man he is. Not that people wouldn't have sympathized with him regardless, but if he were a shmuck, I doubt folks would have reached out to him in the same fashion.