Is good the enemy of the perfect?

I today wrote my first column since last June. It's scheduled to appear on the nysnys.com web site, run by my friend and former colleague Kyle Hughes.

Have to admit I did pick some low-hanging fruit today, criticizing Gov. Paterson for threatening to veto an ethics bill which, although far from perfect, would be a big advance over the current system and likely to be the best thing he gets from lawmakers. Besides, he could always go back and try for a better one after this one is passed.

What is it that football coaches say? Always take the sure points.

Anyway, what's a column for if not to kick someone when they're down? Seems to be lots of low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking at the Capitol, and it's fun to be in on the harvest again.

Also had a farewell lunch today with Albany Times Umion reporter and blogger extraordinare Irene Jay Liu, who is off to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post to report about security issues. She only has to learn Mandarin Chinese in the next few weeks, she has to pick up her new beat as well. Sounds daunting, but then again as I recall when you're under 30 most things seem possible.

She's a big loss.

Also still limping around and grimacing from pain caused by my fall on the ice the other day. Hard to imagine many things worse while trying to recover from an injury than a dose of chemo, which I got yesterday. But hey, have to keep my eye on the real health problem here.