The Bell Curve:

First off, thanks to two readers who inquired about my health when my column didn’t appear last week. As Mark Twain once put it, the rumors of my demise were grossly exaggerated, but at my age they are scarcely unexpected.

I’ve tried to convince a laundry list of editors over the eight years that I’ve been doing this column that a simple card saying I would miss only one column — so I could pay proper attention, in this instance, to the first wonderful chaotic, throat-cutting week of March Madness — would have avoided the torrent of mail that my absence inspired.

Now, the tournament is down to four manageable teams, and three of the favorites have been excised, which is the way it should be.

So enough of that. I’ve become very conscious of repetitive reminiscing, especially about my modest war history ever since the Pilot published a Forum letter several weeks ago in which the writer, in a kind of delicious agony, shouted “Enough, Enough” after reading that week’s column. I would suggest he stop reading it, unless he’s into pain, because I probably won’t change my ways beyond good intentions.

All this reminds me — in a role reversal sort of way — of Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley’s recent agonized cry of “enough” when she said from the dais: “I’ve sat here for six years as a City Council member, and nearly every week we have to hear the vile and the venom about the people in our city, and it does not reflect my views.”

These two examples are parallel only in underscoring a truism about human behavior that we all have an edge somewhere that makes reaction inevitable when it is crossed. The reaction is cleansing if rational but can be dangerous — road rage, for example — if it isn’t.

We make our own judgments. Meanwhile, I will continue to draw on my history for these columns, and Foley says she will not apologize to those who might be offended by her comments.