I think I have my cranky pants on today, because my most annoying co-orkers is really annoying me. And I think I have pinpointed the big issue-- she gets REALLY angry at people for doing annoying stuff that she herself does. For example, she is ALWAYS shouting down the hall instead of using the phone. It drives me mildly crazy, but not enough to say anything about it. In this particular office, many people, including big!Boss shout down the hall occasionally. This morning, my boss was shouting down the hall at me and all the sudden we hear a big "SHHHHHHHHH!!!! I am TRYING to work" from her. Um-- you are the biggest hall shouter of them all! Also, she hates being interrupted when she works, to the point that can only take/make orders for things (part of her job) on one day a week, from one central person who collects them all-- but she contantly shouts down the hall at me or the other admin to a) help her with her computer, b) read over emails she sends or c) help her with some part of her job. Drives me nuts!

Ugh. Too bad you couldn't have said, "Oh, you the High Queen of Shouting down the Hall," but those things don't usually end well.

I think my sore throat is really a sinus infection (it feels like it did the last time I had one). I bought the Walgreen's version of Claritin-D ($6 for five 24-hour capsules?!?) and some sore throat spray to try and knock out the worst of the pain until I can go to the doctor. I haven't been to one since I've moved, so I just did a search at my HMO's website for a local family practice female doc who is taking new patients and called the first one on the list. She's booked until August (busy woman!), but another woman in the practice has an opening for next Monday, so I'm getting the whole workup done.

Hey migraineurs -- they might help your brain, in the long run. [link]

The journal Neurology reports that a group of migraine sufferers had less cognitive decline and memory loss over a period of 12 years than a group of migraine-free adults.

I am starting to feel discombobulated about the book being completely out of my hands, now.

And I'm getting twitchy about the oceans of time I'll have to wait to see it in actual book form.

Do you know anything about book tours or other promotions they might want you to do?

Sigh.

Russell Simmons and Benjamin Chavis, leaders of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said Monday that the recording and broadcast industries should voluntarily censor the "misogynistic" words "bitch" and "ho" and the "racially offensive" n-word from future recordings.

"These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as 'extreme curse words,' " they said.

[...]Monday's statement changed course from another one Simmons and Chavis issued April 13, a day after Imus' show was canceled, in which they said offensive references in hip-hop "may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but our job is not to silence or censor that expression."

Jesse, that is not helping me now when my headache making me want to kill people.

Who wants to hear some good news?

As I mentioned a while back, the editor of the very cool magazine Oxford American had contacted me after reading Lost In the Grooves. Recently he pinged me asking for a submission for their Best of the South issue.

I ponged back with a few story ideas, but not full pitches. (This is when I was polling Natter for Southern Topics.). I didn't hear back from him.

I went back and re-read his email and realized my topics were too broad. They needed stories more like...best BBQ Pork Sandwich in Memphis and Best River for Innertubing and Best QB in the SEC.

Yesterday, I woke up and decided to just take a flyer, write a 500 word piece and send it in. Shit! Deadline was yesterday. So I pounded it out, intent on not wasting the opportunity and wrote about The Best Exploitation Director In the South - John Michael McCarthy (director of such classics as Damselvis, Daughter of Helvis and The Sore Losers ("They wanted meat so they ate the flower children") and Superstarlet A.D. (roaming gangs of women in a postapocalyptic world dressed only in vintage lingerie fighting off marauding cavemen) and, the best Teenage Tupelo.

He took it! It's only like $135 but that ain't bad for a 500 word piece that I banged out in a morning and any time I get paid for writing is just grand with me.

Nice, David!

Jesse, that is not helping me now when my headache making me want to kill people.

But just think -- in 20 years, you'll still remember who those people were!