At least he's got a good sense of humor about it. It makes it a little more tragic because of what might have been, but he still makes me smile with his sweetness.

Crap. I'm combing through my writing, and I can't find anything appropriate to rework and send as a writing sample.

(Even if it does make me feel smart to open files from my Senior Seminar and see papers labeled "Post-structuralism analysis" and "Psychoanalytic theory worksheet". I think it's neat that there was a time when I knew what I was talking about.)

I'm glad he was well enough to realize he wasn't really unwell. That's why I could allow myself to laugh. Otherwise, yes, just a mask of tragedy, no comedy there at all.

Dave Barry is giving up his column, or at least going on an indefinite hiatus. He says:

There comes a time in the life of every writer when he asks himself--as Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Hemingway all surely asked themselves--if he has any booger jokes left in him.

For me, that time has come. I've been trying to entertain newspaper readers since the '60s, when I wrote ''humor'' columns for the Haverford College News.... After college, I got a job as a reporter at the West Chester, Pa., Daily Local News, where I was also allowed to write humor columns. I thought they were pretty good, but after my third one, an editor took me aside and told me -- this is an absolutely true quote -- ''you used to be funnier.''

That was more than 30 years ago, and since then, hardly a week has gone by during which somebody has not told me that I used to be funnier. I sometimes got discouraged, but I kept at it, year after year, the past 22 of them at The Herald. Why didn't I give up? I'll tell you why: I have no useful skills.

so DH is still in the phoenix airport. possibly getting on a plane in a minute or two. there is no internet at the phoenix airport. guess how much money his co lost by saving 30 dollars

Beth, the people making those rules at Matt's company are certifiably insane. I give them another year to fold or get bought out.

Companies like that never really fold, they just go on and on, sucking the lifeblood of employees until they slowly grind to a halt.

They were bought out. That is where the insane rules came from.

oddly, the old rules were not any better. Matt had to be on the east coast for an end of month billing date. the server was going to arrive on the somewhere between the 26- 28th. They knew this over a month in advance. They dithered about the datehe should arrive for over 2 weeks. I thought it was obvious - send him on the 26th - he wasn't going to be doing much on that day. If the server wasn't there on the 27th - 90% of work is dial in anyway. one day of internet access ,and hotel, plus per diem did not equal the idiotic results of dithering. Because they wiated so long instead of a 300- 500 round trip - it was closer to 2000.

They can't do what some companies do - which is say cost to x must be under n dollars, because they fly to too many places. But they could do it by distance - or even if the difference is under 75 - chose the fast flight ... anything over 75 dollar diference - there needs to be justification and approval by manager before flight. simple enough - and they do have a travel agent they are working through - so it isn't that hard...

pisses me off when I have a better idea on how to run the company money than corperate finacial types

Rogue Taxidermy -- a headline on nytimes.com right now!

"I'm a Rogue Taxidermist Hunter."

"What's a Rogue Taxidermist?"

I probably should have posted the job thingy in beep me. Oh well.