I joined Facebook just a couple of weeks ago, at the behest of my two sons, both aspiring comedians. It has turned out to be a good, easy way to keep track of their activities.

Over there, of course, my name is my real name: Tom Henehan. There's another guy on FB with the exact same name; we've determined that we're not related, at least not within the last 3-4 generations. He lives in Minneapolis; I'm the one in New Orleans.

FB has recently more-or-less replaced Mudcat as my primary "pretending-to-work" vice. We'll see if things stay that way or I'll eventually/gradually return here. I seem to be doing more browsing/reading and less writing there than here, and what I type over there is generally less serious and less lengthy than my contributions here have generally been.

Because I joined up for and with my boys, I have quite a few so-called "friends" who are half my age, most of whom are aspiring comics or comedy fans, so there's a lot of smartass banter and one-liners going on in my FB world.

I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but many of my contemporaries ~ not just current friends, but also long-lost college classmates and other semi-distant acquaintances in my age-group ~ seemed to join Facebook at almost the exact same time as me. Also, FB seems to have been in the news more lately. I seem to be part of a social-network population explosion!

I have connected with a dozen or so Mudcatters on Facebook already, and look forward to "befriending" more. (The estimable Kendall Morse became my friend #100 yesterday or the day before.)

Thoughts on Facebook vs MySpace: My kids were on MySpace long before Facebook, and I would look in on their pages occasionally without ever wanting to join up. Many MySpace pages are cluttered and confused in comparison to Facebook, where a clean-looking (if somewhat "corporate") design is more-or-less imposed upon you. MySpace is much better for posting music, it seems, and if I were a working musician I'm sure I would have long since gotten involved with MySpace; Facebook is all about text, photos, and video.

So, if you're a Facebooker, look me up under my name, Tom Henehan, and/or my group page, "Old Hippie Shit." My older New-York-based son is Cassidy Henehan, also found under "Too Cool for School" and "Comedy Clubhouse @ The Telephone Bar"; younger brother Mike is in New Orleans and his various comedy gigs and burlesque-emcee engagements can be found under "Good God Damn Irregulars."

And, oh yeah, there's also my younger brother Paul Henehan, who lives in the UK and is busy every weekend as the drummer in a group called "Eden Burns." I believe they're a sort of classic-rock cover band. Paul and the band are both on Facebook, and their next gig, in Bury St. Edmunds, is currently listed as an "event," Jo's Birthday Bash.