Please don't continue holding your breath. You'll turn blue. Kendall pronounced his day at Johns Hopkins "a good day's work." He is headed home to Maine on the 12:50 p.m. flight and Sinsull will pick him up at the Portland airport at 2:20 p.m. I'm sure he'll post from home. (We're at my office and he said he didn't feel an urgent need to post from my computer here right now.) The reason for this is that there is no definitive news -- we were pretty sure there wouldn't be. The doctor, who Kendall said he liked, ordered a CAT scan (which got done almost immediately) and asked for the biopsy slides to be overnighted from Maine Medical Center so he could take a look at them. That should happen sometime today. Once the Doc takes a look at "the evidence," he will be able to recommend the next steps. The good news is that there wasn't any "oh my god this looks terrible we need to get you into surgery right away" kind of response when he examined Kendall's throat. The other good news is that the otolaryngology department at Hopkins is top-notch, and when the treatment advice comes, I have every confidence that it will be solid and reliable.

I can report that through all this Kendall's smartassery has been absolutely intact. At dinner last night, when he suggested cracking open a bottle of wine, I responded that we really might want to use the corkscrew instead. He replied without missing a beat that I ought to know my place. "The jokes are my department." I've heard lots of them in the last 24 hours.

Now, one personal note. While I am deeply appreciative of (although also extremely embarrassed by) all the positive comments about my role in all this, I want to remind everybody that this is just what friends do for friends. I have been the beneficiary over the years of a wealth of extraordinary support and love from my friends, particularly those in the folk community. They have been there for me through good times and bad. Being there for Kendall is part of my "job description" as a human being and as his friend. So lay off already. Use all your positive energy to focus on getting this guy better. I want to hear those jokes OUT LOUD (not to mention the songs!). Kathy