past its expiration date?

An expiration date for the news?

Guess the news, too, will soon have to come with an expiration date. Apparently, my St. Paddy's Day blog is dated---imagine, in 24 hours no less. Nonetheless, happy to report, (along with yesterday's New York Times, of course), that the U.S. and Iran have agreed to sit down to talks about their alleged nuclear build-up.

As William O. Beeman, professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies at Brown University suggests, in an op-ed piece, while these talks may, to some, represent only a baby step, they are an impressive, and important baby step at that, and those who persuaded this administration to abandon its hard hat in favor of velvet gloves deserve the gratitude of all, throughout the world, today who rise up in protest of the war in Iraq.

While no date for the talks has been set, and there appear to be a few salient conditions, those of us who delight in a world in which energy, nuclear or otherwise, will be put to constructive, and positive, use applaud these developments.