I'm sorry, George.

I'm in trouble. My friend George called to complain that I didn't tell him that I had a website. Actually, that wasn't the part that upset him. What upset him is that he had to find out from Chip, one of his colleagues. So I am royally busted.

[Good thing Mom's sending cookies for George soon.]

I'm very glad that we had our client Holiday Party in our office last night and not tonight, because the weather is just miserable today. Rain and freezing rain all day. The overpass from Penn's Landing to Market Street was a sheet of ice this morning. And it's just warm enough not to snow - 34 degrees according to the Strawbridge's billboard temperature gauge.

[I think the icicle lights I've hung on my balcony will be just that - icicles.]

OK, enough seriousness. Marvel Comics is "outing" one of its characters next year.

NEW YORK (AP) - The Rawhide Kid, a longtime Marvel Comics character, is coming out of the closet next year.

A new story line will reveal the Kid's keen fashion sense — including a stylish leather outfit — in what one Marvel editor boasted would be "the first gay Western."

The Kid's orientation, along with his white gloves and a white cowboy hat fashioned from Canadian beaver pelts, will be unveiled this February in a Marvel series called "Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather."

Marvel is the home of more old-school comics like Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk. The Kid made his debut in 1955, when comic book sexuality was not an issue and Marvel was looking to cash in on the success of the classic TV show "Rawhide." The times have certainly changed.

The Rawhide character will not walk out of the closet and into a saloon — not that there's anything wrong with that. "He doesn't come out and say he's gay," explained Quesada. "But it's obvious through his actions and the things he says that his preference is men, not women."

Part of the comedic slant will come in the Rawhide Kid's asides to the reader after the townsfolk can't quite figure out what makes the gunslinger ... different. In his previous incarnation, the Rawhide Kid was very shy around women. Nothing about that will change in the new version.

Among the clues to the Kid's sexuality will include his reaction to other characters from the comic book, including Wild Bill Hickok and The Lone Ranger.

"I think that mask and powder-blue outfit are fantastic," he says of the Ranger. "I can certainly see why that Indian follows him around."

[Oh dear.]

Quote du jour:

"An apology? Bah! Disgusting! Cowardly! Beneath the dignity of any gentleman, however wrong he might be."

-- Emmuska Orczy (1865 - 1947) Hungarian-British novelist

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