Writer Harlan Ellison woke up this morning and discovered that his anger had been lost. Mr. Ellison, riding high on cheerfulness, was seen driving around Pasadena and, later this afternoon, in a comic book store, where he began French-kissing a clerk who called him “a science fiction writer.” “Where have you been all my life?” said Ellison to the clerk.

The clerk, fearing that Mr. Ellison would punch him or track him down, after calling Ellison’s wife “an old tart” on an Internet message forum, was astonished at Ellison’s change in temperament. “He just isn’t the same,” said the clerk, who declined to give his name. “I mean, I’ve long had wet dreams of shaking the man’s hand and being publicly humiliated by him at a comic book convention. But I never thought he’d plant me a wet one.”