Notable quote of the day: "The people have spoken ..., the bastards!" British MP Stephen Pound, who had agreed to introduce any of five laws to be selected by participants in a BBC radio poll, when they opted for one authorizing homeowners to use any means necessary to defend their homes from intruders. Thanks to Kieran Healy at Crooked Timber and David Beito at Liberty and Power for the tip.

Notable prediction for the New Year: an increasingly loopy Pat Robertson predicts that , in 2004, G_d will re-elect George W. Bush in a landslide. How does he know? Because he's been told that by the Real Deal. Let's see, first there was the flood; then there was to be fire. Ah, hah, plagues and landslides are for"between the times!"

First blogger self-correction for the New Year: Eugene Volokh and I owe modest apologies to the Palm Beach Post and"Mike" for our certitude about the law on statutory rape in South Carolina. They had claimed that Strom Thurman violated the state's statutory rape law in fathering Essie Mae Washington-Williams. We claimed that in South Carolina the age of consent was 14. In 1921, however, the age was raised to 16. There remains a marginal claim that he may not have violated that law, but our certitude was in error. Humble pie doesn't taste so bad when it is eaten in good company.

At Common-Place, UNC's Phil Gura tells an exciting tale of buying and attempting to authenticate the elusive second surviving photographic image of Emily Dickinson. On eBay, of course.

Do intellectuals post more interesting personal ads? One would hope so and apparently they do. There was, of course, the NYRB classic:"Before I turn 67 - next March - I would like to have lots of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me." But Catherine Keenan surveys the genre in the English speaking world and finds fascinating differences.