P.S. VW, I am in on that thing on Sunday. Despite my not replying to emails. I am bad at that, as Somervillains have cause to know.

I got Dunkies coffee this morning (8am meeting, and also I have no cream in my house), and it is acrid and icky. I don't know if it is just me, or the fact I asked for milk instead of cream, or if the coffee batch was bad, but it is not the Dunkies goodness I was craving.

8am meeting! Bleah. And it was over in 15 minutes, too, but 8am was the only time my co-meeters could meet (over the phone).

P.S. VW, I am in on that thing on Sunday. Despite my not replying to emails. I am bad at that, as Somervillains have cause to know.

I half suspected that you might be able to make it. I haven't heard from Theo either. Theo, you gonna be able to make it?

It's gonna be a good group. I'm REALLY excited. I may even invite my friend J. I think she might enjoy it.

I'm watching Vin Diesel on Leno right now.

What I completely don't get is the lummox thing. It's a perfectly well-spoken interview. People are weird.

Ack, Laura, what a situation. Poor son!

Um, Nutty, a phone meeting? You couldn't have done it from home? Just a thought....

I feel very fancy that I keep getting overnight packages for work. I'm also glad I woke up early, so I was awake, if wet and naked, when the UPS guy came.

Awake, wet and naked--isn't that like a UPS guy's DREAM?

Yeah, I don't know why he didn't come in. Possibly the terrycloth robe/towel on head look was not quite as alluring as one might have hoped.

Phone meeting was a conference call, and long-distance. I don't do either of those things on my home phone bill (and anyway, don't think I can do the conference thingie).

What I completely don't get is the lummox thing. It's a perfectly well-spoken interview.

Sometimes it takes in-depth conversation to suss out a true level of speaking ability. I can name you a couple of local celebrities who talk all the time, and are quite quotable, and whom most people would call articulate; but in in-depth interview they may repeat phrases and fumble with sentence-fragments, clearly intent on transmitting an idea, but unable to communicate except in sound-bite. I'm sure the opposite is true as well.

Phone meeting was a conference call, and long-distance. I don't do either of those things on my home phone bill (and anyway, don't think I can do the conference thingie).

Ah, a little more ad-hoc than I was thinking -- not the kind of conference call where everyone gets an 800 number to call in on.

Sometimes it takes in-depth conversation to suss out a true level of speaking ability.

I guess, if you're going to go ahead and assume someone's an idiot you may need more effort to shake that perception.

But I've never heard him give a lummoxy interview. I keep thinking the next one might be the one where he lives down to that facet of public perception.

It disappoints me that I am provided the incentive to bother.

I feel like hell. I barely slept and just feel generally wrecked.

I feel like hell. I barely slept and just feel generally wrecked.

Clearly, you should not be aggravating yourself by trying to understand the Public. Honestly, with Vin I think it's about how he looks and sounds, not about what he says. He doesn't talk fast, he's got that voice, etc. The Rock (for example) just has a way about him that indicates "clever," regardless of what he's actually saying.