Yes, it's me! Mark Steyn of that ilk - and not dead yet, despite the best efforts of the University of Vermont Medical Center. I'm still on the Continent - or, as the Pentagon maps have it, "the War Zone" - but it's Friday, so that means I'll be rousing myself from my sickbed and conducting another edition of our Clubland Q&A live around the planet. The fun starts at 3pm North American Eastern time/8pm British Summer Time. We'll try to pin down the rest of the time zones below, but do, as they say, check local listings. And, if my wretched health refuses to cooperate, please forgive me.

On today's show I'm willing to take questions on whatever's on your mind - the Trump mugshot, the elimination round of the Russian edition of MasterChef, and the not unrelated coup in Niger. If you insist, we can also talk about the Republican debate in Milwaukee, but do bear in mind that, in my present condition, I intensely dislike having to talk about things of no consequence, and most of the fellows on that stage fall into that category, by choice. Still, do give it your best.

~Thank you all for your kind comments about our latest Tale for Our Time - my summer diversion on a theme of H G Wells. Charlene Pinkava, a First Day Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, says of Out of Time:

Thank you Mr Steyn for another brilliant story. I loved the cliffhangers if not the depressing state of our modern world. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Nevertheless, TFOT is my favorite part of the Steyn Club.

Tim Neilson, a First Weekend Founding Member from the Australian state of Victoria, adds:

Bravo, a true tour de force.

The whole series has displayed an Alfred Hitchcock talent for suspense and for confounding the audience's expectations.

One more from Massachusetts Steyn Clubber Joe Cressotti:

Thanks, Mark, for a wonderful tale. Your story had the perfect balance of humor and pathos. Whenever the story inclined to the tragic, the commentary of your cadre of writers would lift me up again with their wit, wisdom, and spirit.

I thought the ending was especially fitting, with the apt references to Aristotle. Actions, and ideas, have consequences, and try as we might, we cannot change that. It was also a good reminder that, although our western society may live in a make-believe world, other societies are more 'realistic' about things.

If you've yet to hear Out of Time, it begins here. And five dozen other ripping yarns can be found here.

~I'm also happy today to take any questions on my free-speech lawsuit against the UK state censor Ofcom in the High Court of England over its "rulings" against me for my coverage of the Covid vaccines. The case is officially called:

The King on the application of Mark Steyn
vs
The Office of Communications

But His Majesty is leaving it to me and my KC to do most of the heavy lifting. So you can read our latest Statement of Claim here.

Many viewers, listeners and readers have asked how they can support this important free-speech case. Aside from procuring a copy of my latest book, The Prisoner of Windsor, there are other ways to lend a hand, including:

a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;

b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate; or

c) treating your beloved to a stateroom on our next Mark Steyn Cruise, which we shall be officially announcing very shortly.

The "chilling effect" of Ofcom on public discourse is far worse than Canada under Section 13 or Australia under Section 18C, so once more unto the breach...

~Whether or not you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, you can listen to our Clubland Q&A live as it happens wherever you chance to be on this turbulent earth: Club membership is required only to ask a question. We love to hear from brand new members, so if you've joined this week, either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter, do shoot me a head-scratcher for today's show. But, if you're not interested in joining, no worries, as they say in Oz: We seek no unwilling members - and as always the show is free to listen to, so we hope you'll want to tune in.

As soon as we go live, members should log-in and submit their queries via our comment form below - and I'll answer them as-it-happens on the audio livestream that should magically appear above (or possibly below - I forget which). And, if you disagree with my response, then let rip in the comments, and I'll endeavour to address a couple of the objections as we go along.

Clubland Q&A is a special production for The Mark Steyn Club. We're not paywalling off SteynOnline or any of that nonsense - and in fact this site now offers more free content than ever before in our twenty-year history. But Club membership does confer a few benefits, starting with participation in our weekly Q&As.

So see you back here live this afternoon at 3pm North American Eastern Time. That's 4pm in the Canadian Maritimes, half-past-four in Newfoundland - and, beyond the Americas, 8pm in London and Dublin; 9pm in Paris and Berlin; 10pm in Kiev and Moscow, now in the same time zone if not the same country; 10.30pm in Teheran, for all you Newfoundlanders who move to Iran for the half-hour time zone; midnight-forty-five in Kathmandu, for all you Iranians who move to Nepal to check out the quarter-hour time zone; 3am in Singapore, Honkers and Perth (sorry about that); 5am in Sydney and Melbourne; 7am in Auckland and even deeper into Saturday in His Majesty's Dominions across the Pacific.

But, whatever hour it is where you are, we do hope you'll be able to join us. To listen to the livestream, simply click the "play" icon on the audio player (in certain browsers, the audio will start auto-playing). And to pose a question simply use the comment form below.