Am I tempted? I'll admit to being tempted. Am I stupid enough to pay $240 over a year in order to get a $99 Nook for free? Sure, I'm that stupid.

I think this is a clever promotion. The truth is, I'd love to sit down with the New York Times on Sunday mornings and look things over; I might even check it out on other mornings with my coffee if it were this convenient.

Will I get that experience from the Times on a Nook? I don't know. Perhaps I'll regret it a month into the subscription.

And if I didn't already own books in the Kindle eco-system (what is this world coming to?) it might be a double-no-brainer.

But, still... I'm tempted.

... when the Saints go marching in!

The procession — the Saintsgiving Day Parade, Lombardi Gras, whatever one prefers — was made up of the huge floats, high school bands, military bands, marching clubs, the Budweiser Clydesdales and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, elected mayor on Saturday and riding on an old-fashioned horse-drawn fire engine. Saints fans watched from balconies, parking garages, trees and the tops of cars, but despite the chill, they mostly stood up close. New Orleans parades, with beads and doubloons raining down on the crowd from the floats, are not the same from a distance.

Oh, how I long to be in that number...