HELLO!

Thursday morning and I was in before 8:45. Amazing. What are you fools doing?

The MOC stayed home from work today. He is not feeling his cheesiest. It was hard to leave him.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Answers

I'm here. About to go into a trademark seminar and meet the lawyers I've been talking to for 2 years. How weird will that be?

Also, do any of y'all know where area code 505 is?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

505 is New Mexico.

I have to go to Office Depot in a little while, but otherwise, I will be messing around all day getting ready for a board meeting tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I am just completely overwhelmed. At work, personally, the wedding - everything. I cannot believe it is Thursday. My client contact is driving me nut - I hope she gets fired today.

When I was driving to work, I was stopped at the light at DeFoors and Howell Mill and this crying girl came up to my car, knocked on my window, and said, "I'm not scum - my boyfriend left me down here. I'm from Cherokee County - here's my license - " We were RIGHT across the street from a Waffle House, so I don't know why she was on the street corner, except that the Waffle House might suddenly be discriminatory about the kinds of poor people they let in the store. Anyway. I gave her all the change I had - about 43 cents - and told her to go to the Waffle House so she could make a phone call. For some reason, my mind has been dwelling on that all morning.

Fuck. I just wish I could spend money without Chris's scrutiny so I could go to Nail South and get a manicure. Dammit all.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

T, I just sent you an e-mail which contains the cure for what ails you.

WHAT is up with the crazy girl on the street corner?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Okay, this made me laugh.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Lord! He's so casual about it, like "Yeah, everybody's teasing me about it."

Gross.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Al, you are so great - unfortunately, I have no time to get away from here today. I have a meeting at 2 and PhRMA is just cramming everything down my throat. Thank you so much.

I don't know what we're doing pre-Ricky Scaggs - I know that we're going with Josh and Liz - do y'all have plans?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I'm just glad that the goat did not seem to be too upset by the incident. I love how the guy is all making love to the camera.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

OK, the thought of Liz at a Ricky Skaggs concert is funny to me. Our plans are to go to dinner and then to the show.

Hey, my friend Kristen (Tito) just became the legal/news editor of the Missouri law publication, whatever it's called. Hooray! AND she's pregnant. It's the perfect job for her, because I think they will eventually allow her to work from home some.

Of course, she has absolutely no publication experience, so I am worried about her a little. I see a trip to St. Louis in my future to explain to her what a blue line is.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

We will need to make a trip to St. Louis.

Al, your lovah hiro found the forums!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Y'all. The goat guy.

Why did they have to point out that he's gay?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Why did they have to point out that he's gay?

I asked myself the same question. In this case, I can't see how it's relevant.

So gross. Can you imagine being those people on the train? They must have been FREAKING out.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I think that he must have pointed out that he's gay. Other than him wanting it to be known (if the guy is willing to fuck a goat, he might see the publicity as a personal ad for mass distribution?), I can't see how it's relevant.

I can't get over the picture. He's all, "Come here, you fine furry goat... You've been a very bad goat, haven't you?"

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Did someone call you from 505?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Surely Britain has some kind of animal cruelty laws...

If I was the owner of that goat, I'd have that guy's ass in jail, where he could have all the free sex he wanted.

Pardon me for the crudeness of what I am about to say, but how sexually bored does a man have to be with himself to - if he has no other option - chose a goat over, you know, just his own hand!

Ahem, again, excuse me. But y'all know how I feel about goats and sheep and stuff. Someone has to be their champion against evil and deviancy!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

It's truly bizarre. But funny.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Y'all, Chris is having his little day off and going to the book store and the cd store because he just got paid and is so excited.

I'm telling you, he budgets for books and cds every month. You can see where adding an extra field on the spreadsheet for "engagement ring" would cause too much stress on him.

I can't get mad about it though, because I'm always really happy for him when he buys something he wants for himself. He chooses so meticulously and spreadsheets for it all.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Maybe he does have an engagement ring Excel worksheet?

I wish someone would give me money. Not even like a ton. Maybe $10,000.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

For real. I have a $100,000 donation budget to work with this year. I so want to apply for a donation to the Teri Lippincott Foundation.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Maybe he does have an engagement ring Excel worksheet?

Siiiigh. Quit sticking up for him. Maybe if they sold one at Old Navy and it cost $7, he might consider it, but otherwise...?

And $10k would last us all about 3 months.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

But I don't need it to live on. Just to help out for a bit.

Maybe he'll give you an engagement pair of socks.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

A bunch of cash falling in my lap would be nice, be it 10 thousand, or 10 dollahs.

Socks would be fine.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Have any of y'all ever rented a limo? I went to limolink and they're telling me a stretch is like $800 for one hour! That can't be right, can it?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Surely not!

I mean, kids rent them for Proms and stuff! They couldn't be that much!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I know. I can't figure it out. I wanted to rent one for Melissa's birthday on Sat., just to like, drive us to the restaurant and them home again that night.

Can't you just Priceline one of those bad boys?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

oooh, Melissa took down her entry and just left up the counting crows quote. Weird.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Yeah, I checked her site last night, and that was all I got.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

How's life, Mike?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

You know, Al, your company should solicit PhRMA for a donation. We could easily cough up $1000 or so.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

What do y'all think of this crazy kidnapped journalist thing?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I think they'll probably kill him.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

That's scary as all get out. And his wife is 6 months pregnant.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

The kidnapped WSJ reporter makes me upset. I think it;s because I can't imagine how absolutely powerless his editors must feel. It seems like they're taking so much responsibility, and to read their pleas just breaks my heart. The email his boss wrote? I can't imagine the anguish and the sense of responsibility that man must feel for Pearl and his pregnant wife.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

One thing that I don't understand - his wife, a French national, went with him to Pakistan. If I were six months pregnant, the last place I'd be is a third-world country.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

It's amazing to me that he has a pregnant wife. It's like a movie.

Those poor people. I hope they don't kill him. CNN.com says "An e- mail purportedly sent by the Pakistani group threatening to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl said it would extend the deadline to kill him to Friday."

And I thought: "Deadline to kill him"? Couldn't they come up with another way to say it?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Headline News has had such sensational headlines lately, I'm surprised they were able to even manage even a smidgen of tact.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

This detail amazes me:

Steiger's statement was sent to international media outlets in hopes of making it public because the kidnapper's e-mail address, printed in newspaper reports when the story first emerged, has been swamped with incoming messages and rendered inaccessible.

Why would the e-mail address have been printed anywhere?!

It just seems so crazy. What is going on in the world these days?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I'm hoping that because they keep pushing back when they say they're going to kill him that they won't do it. Did you read that they printed to group's email address and their account was swamped? Which is a bad thing because then Pearl's editor couldn't get through to them? So. Crazy.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Jinx, H.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

We should start a topic on M+1...

As a journalist and an international affairs grad, it bothers me that the rationale the kidnappers are using is that he's a CIA/Mossad agent. There's no shot. I could see the CIA maybe having an agent pose as a freelance journalist, but not have an actual WSJ guy there. The paper (and all papers, really) would go apeshit.

But I do think they'll kill him anyway.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Start one.

You know, I hate it so much. I hope you're wrong, Mike, but I bet you're not.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

All right, kiddos. Have a good Thursday night and I'll chat at ya tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002