Big trouble with my mail today, as Outlook crashed during the night, and then refused to start up again. Nothing appeared to help. Only after reinstalling the program and clearing all preferences and settings did Outlook run without crashing, but now I'm having trouble receiving e-mail from last night and today, so if you've sent me anything in the last twenty-four hours, I might not get it.

But there's still plenty of reader mail to get through:

Sounds like you’ve been watching the “I love the 80’s” shows on VH1. Anyway, you asked about the Hanson brothers, and while I know nothing about the oldest and youngest, the middle one (Taylor, I think) got married to his high school sweetheart. That info came from another VH1 special, something about Celebrity Weddings…that might’ve been the name. Good luck on finding out about the other two. Probably have to search fan pages (but I’d only suggest that if you really enjoyed the Hanson thing….who know what kind of kooky sites are devoted to them).

On a side note, I’d like to know how you liked Shenmue II. I recently bought it and finished it (depressingly, I might add, but only because I don’t want to get my hopes up over a 3rd installment that probably won’t happen) and I loved it. The series so far is so immersive (the fact that I’m a martial artist and only a year older than Ryo has nothing to do with it…ok, maybe a little) and so much different than anything else I’ve ever played. I’m also wondering if Ryo is ever going to pick up on the fact that it seems as though every girl he meets has at least a small crush on him…except maybe Xuixing (sp?) AKA Master Tao.

Thanks for the update on the Hansons, Lee, and I just want to make one thing very, very clear: I never "enjoyed the Hanson thing". Really. It just struck me, looking into the sad fate of the Coreys, that there must be some happy stories about kids who make it big then vanish completely. Don't some of them become successful lawyers or doctors or rocket scientists?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't yet played through Shenmue II, even though I started it several years ago - on the Dreamcast - and went back to it on the Xbox. I want to finish it. There's just no time. Luckily, it appears that Sega has now announced that there will be a third game in the series...which means that I just have to see it through. I'll return to the Dreamcast version, however. It's so much better with the original Japanese voices. The game is quite excellent, however, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  ¶ 17:50