Laughter is a basic human need, along with love, and food, and an HBO subscription. - Julia Louis-Dreyfus

As a great fan of the work of Mark Twain, I was so sorry when I recently learned he was dead. My thoughts and prayers go out to the whole Twain family. Especially the wonderful Shania.

Everybody needs laughs, so the fact that I've had the opportunity to make people laugh for a living is one of the many blessings that I have received in my life.

I grew up here in Washington, D.C., back during the quaint, old-fashioned "Rule of Law" period.