Not quite back

but Alex Ross dangled something juicy, and (ahem) we couldn't resist. Slate says Tom "tough as teflon and as cancerous" DeLay is an "opera buff." By opera buff, they mean the garden variety, three tenors "nessun dorma" kind, which we agree is a salacious secret worth keeping. Oh but there're quite a few layers of irony, too hairy sort in the three minutes we have (before we sink back into manuscripts and such), we thought it best to just outline the vertices and let your mind make up the most intriguing connections: 1. DeLay knows from "spintos," "verismos," and "ariosos." So does La Cieca, we're told. 2. Sugarland, Texas. (Ranked 46th of best places to live in nation. Other best places to live: #40 Colleyville TX and #48 Boerne TX. NYC and Jersey City didn't rank.) 3. Article subtitled "I'm not making this up. I swear." (i.e., can't be opera buff and criminal at same time) 4. Three tenors = "putting on airs" (i.e., opera is fucked) 5. $185,000 (= 3.5 tickets?). (i.e., the "trickle down" finally reaches the "arts") 6. Three tenors with Skybox seating = DeLay rewarding big donors of Americans for a Republican Majority. (I'm not making this up. I swear. Ask FoxNews.com.) Back again in a few ...