Roge in recovery...

I just returned from vacation to see that Mr. Ebert has posted a new message on his website from the hospital room he's been confined to for the past two months. He's apparently writing and watching movies, in between physical and vocal therapy. "I don't have a crystal ball," he writes, "So I can't tell you when, but I sure look forward to being back on the movie beat." Ebert has been a tireless supporter of online film writing for years, and he's also gone out of his way to stoke my own professional ego on more than one occasion. I know I'm not the only one who hopes to see him back in action soon.

Incidentally, Leonard Lopate (who I find generally intolerable, to the point where I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog called LoHate for a while) had his brother Phillip on the other day to talk about his latest book, an anthology of American film criticism. They got in a bit of a funny debate about Roger, with Leonard knee-jerk dismissing Ebert as a TV critic, and Phillip staunchly defending his place in the canon. Listen here.