Uncle Ear to the phone, I hear my niece's voice for the first time in how many years? I'm chewing on a tiny ear of baby corn, probably slathered in MSG, and her voice sounds tired. It's a distant kind of tired, as if broadcast light years ago from an unknown galaxy. Of course she wants to see me, she says. She's a kind, non-vindictive person. She works really hard at not judging, although cross her on Tuesday, by Wednesday you'll be eviscerated...