I know, I'm late blogging about this week's cartoon. I'm still on vacation, and to be honest, I'll probably continue to be somewhat scarce until after the new year. But you shouldn't care, because it's the time of year to be drinking liqueurs and hunting for the "easter eggs" on the complete eighth season of The Simpsons (yes, Mr. Slowpoke and I received this for Christmas).

This cartoon sprang from a jotting in my notebook about how the most amazing high-tech gadgets eventually become junk. My old laptop was a mean machine back in 1999, and an object of ridicule in 2006. (I am attached to my old laptop, and still use it on occasion despite the wisecracks of those around me.) How swiftly -- and yet almost imperceptibly, not unlike the human process of aging -- our sexy technology turns into laughable kitsch. I find it all rather poignant.