Steve Young turned up in the newsroom this afternoon for the first time in four and a half months.* He thought he might familiarize himself with the premises before his return to work next week.

The burns on his head are healing slowly — we’ll tolerate his wearing a cap at his desk, so long as he doesn’t turn it backward — and his left hand is healing slowly from the operation a few weeks ago to repair nerve damage. He hopes to see restoration of 80 percent of function in the hand, but that is still some months off.

Come Tuesday, he’ll be back at his post. His pleasure at that will be substantial, ours immense.

*I’m not going to restate the details of the terrible fire that struck his house in December and took the lives of two of his children. If you don’t know about it, you can rummage through the archives of this blog.