I may have been gone last week, floating somewhere near Delray Beach, Fla., but that doesn't mean I wasn't anxious to get back to resume posting this important, must-read stuff.

I know what you're thinking. It's been a week, and we haven't had a new ScuttleButton winner, let alone a new puzzle. We didn't hear brilliant jokes on Talk of the Nation. And we're dying to learn what happened in Round 2 of my March Madness pool.

Don't despair!

Fortunately, by the miracles of communications, there was a podcast. Ron Elving, in Washington. Yours truly, in Delray. It's All Politics, with President Obama in a prime-time news conference, with Sen. Kent Conrad making headlines, with NY 20 capturing everyone's attention. And you can hear it right now:

Credits —
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

And speaking of Evie Stone, a nice e-mail message that was meant for her arrived while I was still beaching. It came from Packy Anderson of Jersey City, N.J., and it was in response to the song Evie added to the end of the podcast, following a conversation Ron and I had about new radio talk-show host Rod Blagojevich:

Thank you ever so much for playing "Prisoners of their Hairdos" by Christine Lavin on the podcast this week. It made my morning, it was so apropos!

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna see pictures of me on the beach? Fat chance.

Tags: Heard On NPR