Six months are too long to let a blog lie fallow. The options here are plain: start writing with some frequency, or give it up. I’m going to make an earnest try at the first one.

Tonight Lorne Michaels and NBC celebrate the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Much has already been written in the online and printed fora; MSNBC programming has been promoting the show all weekend. I especially commend to you Sonia Saraiya’s post in Salon emphasizing that the live nature of the show still offers us a chance at communal television viewing in the age of 500 channels and the Web. I regret that David Carr will not be around to give us his take on tonight’s celebration. I’ll add a personal note: As I noted on Facebook and Twitter earlier today, Lisa’s and my marriage has grown up with SNL, as we were married in August, 1975, some seven weeks before its first episode aired in October of that year. NBC has decided, perhaps wisely owing to other scheduling demands, to celebrate the show’s 40th near the end of its 40th season; we’ll celebrate our wedding anniversary closer to the actual 40-years mark.

Switching gears, apparently it’s never too early for pundits to begin incessantly discussing the 2016 presidential election. To be fair, the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary are less than a year away, despite the fact that the 2014 mid-term elections are barely in the rear-view mirror.

At the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law, where I’ve just earned another anniversary at 6 years, I’ve been honored to participate as a member of the decanal search committee. Now that the three finalists have concluded their visits, our work is nearly complete, and the decision determining who will succeed our current dean will lie in the hands of our provost, our board of trustees, and of course the candidate willing to negotiate a deal that will bring him or her to us.

Cheers!