runs through thread coughing leaving behind a trail of used Kleenex

Catching up in Bitches, plus the snowstorm here, is making me want to take a long bubble bath, then write a book. Unfortunately, I live in a daylight basement on concrete, so the tub is a bear to warm up. I think I may need to get the pots of water boiling today though.

I love all the old-fashioned baby names coming new again. I've always loved old-fashioned names anyway, so it's nice that they're popular. I don't know about some though. Mabel? Phinneas? Hmm. Perhaps Hazel and Phinneas just sound bad together.

Hazel.

blah blah blah

Phinneas

I don't hate them nearly as much by themselves. Of course, I think I am spelling Phinneas incorrectly.

it's official. i will never ever stay caught up in Bitches and Natter. then i get discouraged by the number of posts and put it off and put it off until i have thousands of posts to catch up on.

This is so me. And yet, when I do catch up and have time to hang, it usually seems that everyone is gone and I keep checking in vain for another post. I think it's black magic.

chases ChiKat with zinc and echinacea

I'm tired of feeling like crap. It seems I've been sick since T'giving. I've been downing Airborne all weekend to no avail it would seem. And, I need to go buy more Kleenex and cough syrup.

Nora has a new tag!

Okay, I have to put this here, since it's not going to make it to print. I'm writing an article on the science behind COX-2 inhibitors, and the actual reason why they're dangerous. I needed a segue, so I asked the question, "Why would pain medication have any effect at all on the heart?"

I followed up with, "As Joss Whedon would say, it's about blood."

I thought it was brilliant and clever and everyone would get it, but it seems I was wrong. This is what my editor changed it to:

While the dangers of these drugs has caused many to use extreme caution when purchasing medication, the science behind their warning has a llot to do with blood, said Joss Whedon, title.

She thought he was some doctor I'd interviewed.

She thought he was some doctor I'd interviewed.

BWAH! Poor thing, sheltered, isn't she?

I like it, P-C.

Poor thing, sheltered, isn't she?

She said she considered herself pretty up on pop-culture, and she didn't know who he was. It baffles me.

I like it, P-C.

I like it too, and I was looking forward to it making it to print so I could announce the article in Press, but I have to cut it. She doesn't think people will get it, and it's a little flip for a serious news article.

P-C, you might be able to use the quote if you attribute it to the show, rather than to Joss. People have heard about Buffy who don't know who Joss Whedon is. Assuming your reader knows the same references you do can drive the them away--if I was reading an article which said "as Wolfgang Pauli put it..." and I didn't know who he was, I would feel like a dope--if it said "Physicist Wolfgang Pauli is known for saying..." I then learn TWO things, the quote and who it's from.

She doesn't think people will get it, and it's a little flip for a serious news article.

I agree with her that it probably doesn't belong in that kind of article, but I enjoy it, nonetheless.

I think Robin's right, Polter-cow. Also, hang on to it. I've just published the unpublishable, remember.