I think I want to thank everybody who wrote with advice regarding my fear-of-flying problem, especially those who (A) warned me not to ride this particular roller coaster and (B) those who warned me not to ride any roller coaster, ever. All this helpful input will doubtless ease my mind no end come tomorrow morning….

Incidentally, fear of flying often (as in my case) has nothing to do with flying per se, and thus is completely inaccessible to lectures about how flying-is-safer-than-driving, etc. I love helicopters, for example, but am severely rattled by airliners. Like I said, this is not rational. I do, however, plan to try out the flight simulator at the National Air and Space Museum the first chance I get. I hear it has a panic button.

My anxiety level has now ascended to 5, thanks in part to the fellow who sent me the URL of a Web site containing photos of the Rye Playland roller coaster, shot from inside a car. In the immortal words of Daffy Duck, thanks for the sour persimmons, buster. (Just kidding–I actually found it kind of reassuring, sort of.)