There are three items...

...on my list for today:

1. Something I should do;

2. Something I must do;

3. Something I want more than anything to do.

In order:

1. Write an article. I spent six hours on Friday -- and another four yesterday -- rounding up information. Sounds easy, yes? I mean, I am prepared, have all I need. The only problem is that my concept of what this piece should be and the editor's idea are most likely worlds apart. My cynical nature shifted into max. overdrive the more I dug into it; no matter how I twist it around, the subject is worthy of more derision than praise.

And yet writing it up that way would cause great offense, not only to the people involved, but to the editor and -- no doubt -- a substantial portion of his readership.

Look at it this way: would you want to be the one who tells a half-million testosterone-charged young men that their favorite lust-object has bad skin and body odor and that her most prized parts are the result of surgery and hours spent in Photoshop? You would not. Would any sensible editor let you say so, even if it's true? Nuh-uh.

It's the same in my field. Something can be as bogus as Ted Kennedy's love for humanity and yet going public with the truth is not in the plan. Instead, I need to write words of praise and keep the fantasy alive.

Not into that right now.

2. Another attempt at info-gathering for yet another article. Today happens to be the last day I can do that. If I don't go out and make some notes, I'll have to fake it. Do-able, but not desirable.

APRENTHETICAL THOUGHT: You can see that the first two items have to do with work. It's not that I always have to work on weekends, or even that I care all that much the way things are right now, but I work when I have to. If the "have-to" days fall on weekends or holidays, doesn't make any difference....

3. Forget it. Impossible. Why waste time and energy telling you about what will not, cannot, happen?

So that reduces the available choices to two.

I'll take #2. It's easier.