1. My wedding ring. It’s big and plain and made of white gold and without any inscriptions, jewels, or decorations whatsoever. It looks like The One Ring. In fact, I occasionally take it off and talk to it like Golum. My preciousssss….

However, I have yet to throw it into a fireplace to see if the flames cause elvish script to appear on it.

2. New music. In addition to the aforementioned new Radiohead release, the last three weeks alone have seen cd’s by Dropkick Murphys, High On Fire, and Oceansize drop. And that’s after a summer featuring kickass albums from The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, and Gogol Bordello. After a slow start to the year, the quantity of good new music coming out has turned into a deluge.

3. My cat. She was extremely shellshocked after spending six months at the animal shelter, and spent her first two weeks hiding under furniture. However, she’s since come out of her shell, and now will imperiously demand that you sit down so she can climb on top of you and knead the hell out of your lap. Her name is Scratchy.

4. The total domination of New England over American professional sports. The Red Sox are in the running for the World Series, the Patriots are a merciless steamroller flattening any and every team unfortunate enough to have to play them, and even the long-dormant Celtics are getting into the act, stealing Kevin Garnett from Minnesota and Ray Allen from Seattle to assemble a veritable All-Star team.

5. 1408. When was the last time a movie adaptation of a Stephen King story was any good? This one, however, is fantastic. It received little notice in the theaters, but it’s well worth the rent; scary and spooky as hell without being gory. And for the ladies out there, it stars John Cusack.