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On Christmas Eve, I learned that my daughter had a pretty serious congenital heart condition. She had surgery to correct it on Tuesday.

There have been a few bumps in the road since then, but the surgery itself went beautifully, and she’s been healing and gaining strength day by day. I’ve been living on couches in the hospital for nearly a week now, but if all goes well with a couple of final tests she’ll be sent home today.

I’ll be back to on-topic posting soon. I miss you guys. Thanks for all the good wishes on Twitter and via email.

Update | She’s been discharged with a very positive report. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

“Sitting on that dumb stool was the best feeling of my life.”

—Franklin McCain

Fifty years ago last night, four first-year students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College decided to head into Greensboro the following day and ask to be served at the lunch counter of the city’s Woolworth’s store. Fifty years ago this afternoon, they did just that.

The four students weren’t served that day, but they stayed seated at the counter until the store closed, and by the next day — with a little help from the A&T student government president — they had rounded up two dozen students to join their protest. In days sit-ins were spreading across North Carolina, and within weeks they were happening all over the South. Before long it was a movement — the first student movement of the 1960s.

The sixties began fifty years ago today. And it was four undergraduate students at an obscure Ag and Tech college who did it.

“There’s a time and place for everything, and it’s called college.”

–Chef

Eleven people were arrested late last night as police raided an off-campus fundraiser in support of Berkeley student protesters.

The fundraiser, a dance party held at the Exit 154 Gallery in San Francisco, was scheduled to begin at 10 pm. According to a first-person account I received via email, police and fire marshals arrived on the scene sometime after midnight, and an altercation followed.

The blog Occupy CA is reporting that there were eleven arrests and multiple injuries at the party, with four people held in custody overnight. They say that nine of the eleven are facing misdemeanor or felony charges.

Update | A student newspaper report on the incident describes a chaotic melee — cops brawling with partygoers while bystanders chanted “fuck the police.” The paper says that the party was organized by student activists from SFSU, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz, and that one of their reporters, a San Francisco State student, was arrested as she photographed the fracas.