For those of you wondering, “Where has Jessica been the past few weeks?,” well…I had a baby. He came five weeks early, but he was healthy. And so the past 3 1/2 weeks have been devoted to dirty diapers and breastfeeding. But I’m beginning to feel human again (meaning I’m beginning to get used to sleeping only four or five hours at night) and I’m getting used to the regimen and I will soon be back to the blog like nobody’s business.

We named him Nesta, which is Bob Marley’s real first name. (He changed it to Robert Nesta, rather than Nesta Robert, when he immigrated to the U.S. because somebody told his mother that the U.S. immigration officials would respond “more favorably” to a normal white Anglo-Saxon name.) I’m proud to have a son named after Bob Marley, a fighter for justice and equality, not to mention one of the best ever musicians of the 20th century.