Little Bits

My Dad has been smoke-free for two weeks. "You must feel so much better," I said.

"No. I don't feel any different; it's all bullshit. I'm going crazy. And I am so hungry."

"You're gonna get fat!" I said. "That's cute."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I antagonized him further by reminding him to watch his salt intake, at which point he yelled that he was going to Ongpin for some kare-kare. Then he hung up on me.

***

Earlier today, Risa and Vida dictated a story, which I dutifully recorded on about 6 sheets of blank paper so that they can draw pictures to go along later.

Sadly, their story is better than anything I've written recently.

***

Did you know (I certainly didn't) that a provision of No Child Left Behind requires school districts to give the Department of Defense the names and addresses of dropouts? If our grossly underfunded school districts fail to comply, they lose money they cannot afford to lose. None of this applies to private schools, of course.

So wrong, and in so many ways.

***

We're leaving for a ski trip with the rest of the neighborhood on Friday, and I am fretting over keeping my head warm. Every hat I've come across looks like this one which, needless to say, ought to be named "The Anti-Ver Hat." I got some cool gloves, though.

***

One Jason Notte has a complaint to register on the subject of "Errors in Rejection Letters," and he does so over at The Black Table:

A hint to all editors out there: If you're going to have brass ones big enough to turn down someone's work, you'd best bring the skills to back it up. For example: If you're sending out form emails with sentences like this: "we wish you the best of luck in place it elsewhere" (from the text of an actual letter), you're just daring the recipient to send a snide, condescending response or obscenity-laden tirade. While your approach may do wonders in restoring the recipient's confidence in his/her writing abilities and reassuring them that submitting to your publication was a bad idea in the first place, failure to do simple things like, oh, conjugate verbs does little for your stature as vanguard of the English language. Do yourself a favor—shut off the SpellCheck, reread your own writing, crack a dictionary every so often and DO SOME ACTUAL EDITING. And while you've got the Webster's handy, look up "fucktard" and see if it adequately describes you. Wouldn't want to get another letter.

If you see Jason on the street, either steer clear or give him a hug.

***

I think I'll leave it at that, as I'm having a little trouble getting focused today. In case you didn't notice.