By Tickled Pink

“I’ve never been married, but I tell people that I’m divorced so they won’t think something’s wrong with me.”
–Elayne Boosler

When asked why I’m still single, one of my standard replies goes something like this, “I’m just waiting for the nice married men to get divorced so I can catch them on round two.”

Sure, it’s the defense mechanism of a smart-ass spinster, but it was also prophetic: I’m now the happy girlfriend of a divorced man.

Divorce is swirling around me these days. Of the three weddings in which I’ve been a bridesmaid, only one of those marriages (that of Smooch and King Coozie) hasn’t ended in a bitter divorce. I don’t know why this surprises me. The divorce rate of my peers pretty much mirrors that of the U.S. at around 45-50%. But I still kind of feel like Frank the Tank in Old School (“You mean, like a real divorce?”) when I see people my age getting divorced en masse.

I guess my naive incredulity stems from the fact that I haven’t had firsthand personal experience with it. We all know I’ve never been married, so obviously I’ve never been divorced. My parents, bless ‘em, have been together since they were 13, got married at 19 and 20 (38 years ago), never divorced or even came close, and they are still happy together.

Even more unusual is that I grew up in a neighborhood in north Austin in the ’70s and ’80s where divorces were very much in the minority. Most of the parents of the kids I went to elementary school with are still married and are, by all accounts, pretty happy.

But that is far from the norm. My generation, as a whole, saw a lot of divorce — and it wasn’t pretty. Why are we (well, not me) getting married, then, and in droves? Marriage is no longer an unquestioned societal necessity to have sex, be financially stable, or have children. Yet we’re getting married like crazy, and our divorce stats aren’t any better than those of our folks.

How did we get here? Are we lost? We were raised by our Boomer parents to do whatever makes us happy — but do we know what that is? “Social guidelines and pathways were no longer set out in front of them, leaving many of them in a state of confusion,” Pamela Paul says of Gen Xers in her book The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony. “As a result, the search for identity has become stretched out across one’s twenties — delayed, prolonged and complicated.”

Could we Gen Xers be getting married to find ourselves, as a refuge from the overwhelming amount of choices that our parents, with the best of intentions, provided for us?

Or maybe, arrested adolescents that we are, we’re still rebelling a little bit against Mommy and Daddy? With the advent of “no-fault divorce,” we learned that marriage was disposable. Paul feels that “divorce destabilized all children in the 1970s, even those who didn’t grow up in a broken home.” In her view, Generation X is “reacting to divorce by romanticizing marriage.”

I think she’s onto something there. Marriage is “in” again because we believe that love and marriage (as opposed to the divorces of our parents’ generation) equates to happiness and stability, and everywhere we turn that message is reinforced. Problem is, we are clearly not equipped with the tools to be happily married. We know how to get what we want as individuals, but we haven’t been taught responsibility for anyone but ourselves.

In the next few posts, I’m going to attempt to examine this further, but it’s a stickier subject than I ever imagined. Asking what I felt were seemingly simple questions (such as, “Why did you get divorced?”) turned out to feel like walking on a mine field. It is not something that people really want to discuss.

That’s never really stopped me, though.

Next Installment:

Divorce is the New Black — Part Two: We Need to Talk

The Republican debate last night from California centered around one question: Are we better off today than we were eight years ago?

Let me answer that from my own personal experience. Eight years ago, I packed up my non-power-steering Saturn and moved to Austin, where I was quickly laid off from a dot-com, collected unemployment for months while drinking excessively, until finally landing at the Texas Legislature making minimum wage.

Today, I’m a blogger snorting massive amounts of ibuprofen under house arrest, reduced to watching “The King of Queens.”

Eight years ago? Glory days.

After watching last night’s debate, I have come to the following conclusion. If we elect Mitt Romney as the next president, we will be signing away our freedoms.

I’m convinced that Romney is working covertly with Tom Cruise to develop some hybrid species of Mormon-Scientologist Super Americans who will take over the world, forcing us mere mortals into a life of servitude and making us listen to the “Cocktail” soundtrack while performing menial tasks.

Don’t worry. Be happy.

I just got up from my three-hour nap and my mother-in-law has taken over the TV to watch Dr. Phil and Oprah. This morning it was The View. After framing pictures from my surgery and putting them up around the house, I had nothing left to do except hunch over in pain. And write a post. BECAUSE TICKLED PINK CAN’T SEEM TO FINISH A DIVORCE COLUMN SHE STARTED A YEAR AGO. Do you have any idea how many people have gotten divorced between now and then?!

So let’s turn our attention to the snub heard round the world. The one where Obama wouldn’t shake Hillary’s hand at the State of the Union. I did not watch the State of the Union because the nausea from the anesthesia has finally started to wear off.

Apparently Hillary shook Uncle Teddy’s hand and Obama gave her some icy stare and then turned his back on her. He did, however, kiss Teddy full on the lips.

This morning, Obama explained that there was no snub intended, and that he had initially waved to Hillary as she entered the chamber, and she flipped him the bird.

Perennial Hillary-basher Maureen Dowd even half-criticized Obama:

Obama is right to be scared of Hillary. He just needs to learn that Uncle Teddy can’t fight all his fights, and that a little chivalry goes a long way.

But, really, from someone who has been snubbed hundreds if not thousands of times, I can’t see what the big deal is. So he didn’t shake her hand, or throw down his jacket so she could walk over a puddle. She can handle it.

John Edwards will drop out of the race today, according to WashPost. It was enough to get me off the couch and crawl over to the computer, wincing in pain as I dragged myself across the floor. Just call me… an American hero.

I also watched the Florida results roll in last night, and saw Giuliani’s departure speech. My GOD that man’s head was sweating. I mean, visible beads of sweat. Yuck. He is expected to endorse McCain.

Which brings me to my phone conversation with my father. He called to check in on me, I thanked him for the flowers, he said, wait, I didn’t send flowers, and I said I KNOW. Anyway, the conversation turned to politics, as it often does in the Smith-Kennedy family, and I asked him, as a resident of Naples, if he had voted in the primary.

Well, he didn’t, because he’s registered as an INDEPENDENT. My father Bernie?! A lifelong Republican?! Bernie also told me how much he hates McCain because he views McCain as a warmonger.

And then, unless the Vicodin is playing with my mind, which is completely possible, my father said that if it comes down to Hillary versus McCain, he will vote for… Hillary.

Let me remind you how completely earth-shattering that statement is coming from someone like my father. Here’s what Bernie said in the comments last October:

FROM DAD: (A REGISTERED INDEPENDENT)I AM PRETTY SURE I SAID I WOULD’NT VOTE REPUBLICAN;I’LL NEVER VOTE FOR HILLARY!!
LOVE,DAD

If my father would vote for Hillary against McCain, let me be clear. She’s going to win.

I will be out of pocket for the next few days. Please direct all your questions to my PR rep.

I have been told that Tickled Pink will resurface long enough to post a new column on divorce. I hope this does not give the unmarried women among us (meaning you) false hope that there are some newly available men out there. You would only be the rebound, rubber band girl. Hasn’t your heart been broken enough?

A couple other guest writers should be filling in as well. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame.

If I do manage to crawl over to my laptop, I apologize in advance. It would no doubt result in a profanity-ridden, Vicodin-inspired, pain-induced, bitter, offensive, drunken-sailor-type rant that would only lead to regret, dismay and abject humiliation.

Don’t say it.

At 6PM Saturday, the South Carolina polls closed. At 6:01PM, CNN projected Barack Obama the winner based on exit polls. Well, there goes my night. I had arranged a delicious cheese plate and opened a bottle of wine, ready to settle in for a few hours of media hype and predictions while the real numbers started coming in. I planned to only leave the couch to vomit as I am a hopeless drunkemic.

So no win for Hillary. Not too shocking, considering that South Carolina is notoriously anti-woman. I must admit that Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama caught some of the extended family, namely me, by surprise. I don’t recall that conversation in the last game of touch football at the compound.

[Obama] has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people to become engaged in the political process…

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

And now… Uncle Teddy?!

Bobby Kennedy’s kids, however — former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townshend, her brother Bobby, Jr., and sister Kerry — are in Hillary’s camp. No comment yet from William Kennedy Smith or Michael Skakel, who have been heavily lobbied by both campaigns.

By Paul Stekler

While the pundits get crazy on the Sunday morning shows, dissecting this week’s stories (Obama’s big win, bashing the Billary campaign, McCain getting Governor Crist’s endorsement, the decline and fall of Rudy), there’s one fun fact from the South Carolina primaries that I’m not sure the folks on my TV are paying attention to.

In a state that’s one of the most Republican states there is these days, that featured Republican and Democratic primaries there were hard fought, competitive races, there were 423,563 ballots cast in the Republican primary compared to 529,771 in the Democratic primary. That’s 100,000 plus more Democrats turning out in one of the reddest of red states.

With a recession on the way, a majority of Americans saying Iraq wasn’t worth it, and no one outside of his immediate family interested in watching W. give his farewell state of the union Monday night, the SC turnout might tell us something about the difference in partisan enthusiasm right now, and who’s liable to turn out in November.

This week, officials discovered that students at Parkland High School in Allentown, PA, had been transmitting pornographic video and graphic photos of two female classmates for months by cell phone. Police are now trying to stop the spread. Too late. (OMG! LOL!)

At least 40 students have been asked to turn in their phones to police by next Tuesday, which gives them one last weekend to enjoy them in private. The images include one of the girls engaging in a sex act with an unidentified boy, and the other girl’s bare breasts. Obviously the first girl was hotter.

“Most people got it and kept passing it along for fun to everyone in their phonebook,” said 16-year-old Jon Gabriel, who said he received and deleted the offensive images. Hours after locking himself in the bathroom stall.

According to District Attorney James Martin, “Our thrust has been to get the kids to come forward and we’ve indicated we will not charge them for possessing the images.” The bottom line? Who is thrust-worthy?

Thank God we weren’t so technologically advanced when I was in high school. My herkie jump would’ve spread like wildfire.

The NYT editorial board endorsed Hillary and McCain in the primaries. HILLARY. Despite the fact that it is cold and rainy and I had to spend the better part of my morning in a doctor’s office and didn’t get my first cup of coffee until 30 minutes ago, this is a good day. No. It’s a GREAT day.

Obviously the NYT likes Obama. He’s a likable guy. Just because I’m for Hillary doesn’t mean I’m against Obama.

A few endorsement highlights (of which there are many):

Hearing [Hillary] talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America’s big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience.

Clinton has used her years in the Senate well to immerse herself in national security issues, and has won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military. She would be a strong commander in chief.

The potential upside of a great Obama presidency is enticing, but this country faces huge problems, and will no doubt be facing more that we can’t foresee. The next president needs to start immediately on challenges that will require concrete solutions, resolve, and the ability to make government work. Mrs. Clinton is more qualified, right now, to be president.

Come on. Agree or disagree?

Sometimes I’ll drive around late at night and stare into rich people’s windows, imagining what their lives must be like with all that money. I often think that they just sit around the billiards room with their rich friends, drinking single malt Scotch, throwing their heads back and laughing, saying “We’re so f*ucking rich!”

This, of course, upsets me to no end, as I turn onto the next street, headlights off. The economic downturn is impacting me and the rest of the working class folk the most, as we try to make ends meet. Should we forgo dinner or drinks? What if I fast for three straight days and then binge drink? Am I saving money or am I just another miserable albeit fashionably thin drinkorexic?

Luckily, Congress has stepped in to save us all. They’ve created an economic stimulus plan! Because, when you turn your economy on, does it return the favor?!

Individual (unmarried) taxpayers will receive checks for $600. Couples will receive checks for $1200. If you have kids, you could receive up to $300 per child and a permanent “customer with children” parking space at Central Market.

I am totally going to adopt a South Korean child for this reason. I hear you can give them back if it doesn’t work out.

My apologies for the late posting. If you’d like to cancel your subscription, please contact us at 1-800-MAKE-ME-A-SANDWICH.

Due to a severe Actifed coma (although I believe my nasal passages are clearing, I can almost breathe without leaving my mouth open and infecting those around me), I direct you to my VERY FIRST COLUMN in Texas Monthly on the future of media.

OK, so it didn’t quite make the February print issue (available on the newsstands! don’t be scared of Lance!)–it’s featured instead on texasmonthly.com, which is much, much better than the magazine. That’s what Evan told me when he looked at it and said, “We can’t possibly put this crap in the magazine. It’s got Internet written all over it.”

But at least my photo made it into the contributors list–and what a photo it is. I believe it’s from Election Night two years ago, when I was still somewhat young and idealistic. (/What’d she say?) I’m not sure why the glasses of wine weren’t photoshopped out, but I suppose this gives them an excuse to fire me. Like they need another one.

I dutifully provided a handful of pictures to the art department, most from college party pics, where my bangs take up half my face and I’m wearing my baggy patterned knee-length sweater. With a flannel shirt tied around it. No go.

I interviewed the lovely and credentialed Karen Brooks because of her journalistic expertise, and because she is the only reporter who will talk to me.

But let’s be honest. It doesn’t really matter what Karen Brooks thinks. Or what I think. Or what anyone over thirty thinks. Like many of my colleagues, I’m a washed-up has-been. As so-called “digital immigrants” (those who grew up in a world where you filled out your college applications on a typewriter), there’s only so much we can do to help shape the future of media.

There’s a new condition out there that I believe many of you are suffering from. It’s called Drunkorexia. According to psychology and addiction experts, drunkorexia refers to women (mostly unmarried) who eat less so they can drink ungodly amounts of liquor without gaining weight.

Unfortunately, there is no known cure, except for when a woman gets so drunk that she gives in to her hunger pangs and stops at Wendy’s drive-thru on her way home.

Dr. Carrie Wilkins, director of the Center for Motivation and Change (snore), says that statistics show that half of young women with alcohol problems also have some form of eating disorder. Older women with alcohol “problems” tend to view their younger counterparts with disdain, walking over the passed-out beauties on their way to the bar.

“Food slows the absorption and acts as a buffer from becoming intoxicated too quickly,” Wilkins said. “That first drink after not having eaten all day and in some cases these girls do not eat for many days in a row, that first drink has a big effect.” They’re starving themselves for days so they can pound all the cosmopolitans they want? How about just putting ankle weights on before going out?

The female body processes alcohol differently from the male body, and two years of women’s drinking equals 10 years of a man’s. OH MY GOD THAT IS SO UNFAIR. That makes me, like, 300 years old, in drunkorexia years.

Columnist David Broder, who has been in journalism for fifty years, which is to say half his life, contends that South Carolina is a must-win for Barack Obama. He hasn’t won any states since Iowa, and has only picked up one delegate. Oprah Winfrey.

Although Obama was favored by MSNBC in New Hampshire and CNN in Nevada, it was only a fairy tale. But in South Carolina, the black vote is roughly half of the Democratic electorate, and he has built up steady support within the black community after Hillary told a reporter that MLK, Jr. should have been a white president.

John Edwards won SC in 2004, when he was endorsed by The Sons of Millworkers Union. He is expecting to receive this endorsement again.

I almost forgot about the issue of illegal immigration due to the economic downturn that is impacting me personally. Just this morning, my Visa was declined when I tried to buy a skim vanilla latte, forcing me to dig around in my purse for loose change after the guy behind me in line refused to give me four bucks. DAMN YOU BURKA.

But there is one place that will never grow tired of the immigration issue. And that bastion of true patriotism is… Farmers Branch.

The city council Tuesday passed an ordinance that prohibits illegal immigrants from renting or owning homes in the Dallas suburb. “The federal government will verify if the person is in the country legally,” Mayor Pro Tem Tim O’Hare said. “If not, we will notify that person as well as the landlord in writing that they do not have the right to be in the country.”

This is the second noble attempt by the citizens of Farmers Branch to bar landlords from renting to immigrants or anyone who looks suspiciously brown. “If we were sued for this ordinance and had to defend this ordinance as well, it wouldn’t surprise me,” O’Hare said. “We’re not in this for the short term. We’re in this for the long haul.”

Is there nothing else that the city council could be working on? Highway beautification? Zoning? Parking tickets? Giving themselves a raise? At least this makes for interesting meetings. My first job out of grad school, I covered a local city council and park district board. My big break came when a neighborhood’s favorite mailman retired and I made it to B3 of the metro section. Below the fold.

I have a confession to make. You know how I took that other job? Apparently I’m supposed to be “working,” and not converting my office into Hillary’s Texas campaign headquarters. (I knew I was pushing it when my phone rang and I answered, “Hillary for President, how may I direct your call?”)

I had to think of something, and quick. I needed something that looks like work even though it isn’t. Something that requires little to no skill for people with little to no brains. Something that takes very little time away from pinot-swilling and cheese plates.

Something very much like… a blog! A blog about… national politics! Let’s call it… Poll Dancing: Stripping the ’08 Election Bare.

A blog is born.

Evan Smith, Paul Burka, and myself have been writing since Friday. Every time one of them posts, I immediately trump-post them. It’s these little hollow victories that get me through the day.

This shouldn’t impact the stunning political news coverage you receive on ITPT. It has been made explicitly clear to me that I cannot use the word “f*uck” on texasmonthly.com, even with the asterisk. Fascists.

(If this blog doesn’t work out, I am getting fired. Then it’ll be back to the mill for me.)

I should’ve never turned it on. (Sidebar: What is with the new Cadillac commercials? “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” I may be just a humble Honda owner, but are you supposed to want to f*uck your Cadillac?)

Last night’s Democratic South Carolina debate almost made me like John Edwards again. All he had to do was sit back and look pretty while Hillary and Obama attacked each other with accusations of working at Wal-Mart and being a slumlord. I half-expected them to go into their corners when the bell rang, towel off, get a rub-down, and back to the podiums.

Obama was almost constantly on the defensive and it’s NEVER good to be the person on the defensive while the other two gang up on you. Usually, it’s been Hillary. Because she’s just a girl.

Here’s what happened last night:

OBAMA: Now, you can dispute that, but let me finish.

Hillary, you went on for two minutes. Let me finish.

CLINTON: Now, wait a minute.

Wolf, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Just a minute.

BLITZER: Senator Edwards, let them wrap up. Then I’m going to come to you.

Yes?

CLINTON: I just want — I just to clarify — I want to clarify the record. Wait a minute.

EDWARDS: There’s a third person in this debate.

BLITZER: Wait a minute, Senator Edwards. Hold on.

There has been a specific charge leveled against Hillary Clinton, so she can respond. Then I’ll bring in Senator Edwards.

CLINTON: I just want to be sure…

OBAMA: Go ahead and address what you said about…

BLITZER: We have got a long time to. You’ll have a good opportunity.

CLINTON: We’re just getting warmed up.

Meanwhile, Hillary and Edwards met privately backstage following the debate. Which could only mean one thing. The whites are forging an alliance.

Despite my severe nasal drip Sunday morning, I pulled myself out of bed to watch Meet the Press. Because if I didn’t faithfully watch Meet the Press, I would have to reflect on Sunday mornings past, when I was a devout churchgoer well on her way to becoming the oldest altar girl in the history of Catholicism.

I have chosen politics over religion and I must live with that choice. However, I do still continue to teach the occasional Sunday school class to disadvantaged children whose parents force them to attend public school.

To my dismay, yesterday’s MTP turned out to be a pundit roundtable. Tim Russert’s roundtables aren’t even in the same weight class as George Stephanopoulos’s roundtables. George gets Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Donna Brazile, and George Will. It’s delightful.

Meanwhile Russert gets… Peggy Noonan. Ronald Reagan’s ex-speechwriter has more botox injected into her forehead than Nicole Kidman. (Kidman is pregnant. I hear she plans to clone her baby’s skin cells for personal use.)

Tom Brokaw was one of the guests and he seemed to be doing his best Dan Rather impersonation (“I think we’ve got a wreck-’em derby going on in the Republican Party right now.” “It does remind me of a truck running down the highway, and it gets flats all at once, and now you’ve got everybody going around with those little aerosol cans trying to fix the flat tires.”)

Just to fill you in on what happened over the weekend since some of you, you know, have social lives and may have missed it. Mitt Romney and Hillary won Nevada. McCain won South Carolina. I think Rudy’s still somewhere in Florida. Duncan Hunter dropped out saying, “You won’t have Duncan Hunter to kick around anymore!”

Here’s what happened with the Dems in Nevada. Hillary got the woman’s vote, 51 to 38 percent, and the Latino vote, 64 to 26 percent. Obama won the black vote, 83 to 14 percent. John Edwards got the vote of some drunk guy playing slots at 3AM.

Huckabee, who came in second in South Carolina, wants to rewrite the constitution so that “THE LORD OUR GOD” appears after each sentence, kind of like when you read your fortune and add “IN BED” to the end of it. “You will be greatly successful this year.” “IN BED!” OMG! LOL! It’s kind of like that.

Nothing will unite the Republican party like Hillary because they all want to beat her in the general. (I am not saying that. I am still summarizing MTP. For the two of you who are still reading.)

Obama wants to be the next Ronald Reagan. Yes, it’s true. He wants to go to Hollywood. Finally, Bill needs to tone it down on the campaign trail. (They had a few clips of Bill. The man is not looking well. THE LORD OUR GOD. He’s tired and beaten down. IN BED.)

Nevada holds its caucuses Saturday, and will give us our first look into how the Latino population will vote. As I was dropping Mr. PL off at his sports medicine doctor’s office this morning on my way to work (oh he’s perfectly capable of hobbling on home), I asked him how the Latinos planned on voting. (The Latinos hold weekly conference calls in which they devise plans to take over the country. So far, so good.)

He said they won’t vote for Obama because they’re racist. But I reminded him that they won’t vote for Hillary because they’re sexist as well as racist. So who will the racist, sexist Latino voters support?

What el conundrum-o!

Almost 60 percent of Hispanics identify themselves as Democrats. And in Nevada, Latinos make up roughly 20 percent of the population, and 12 percent of the state’s eligible voters. Whoever wins Nevada could have an edge in California, New York, New Jersey, and San Salvador.

Obama was endorsed by the Culinary Workers Union of Nevada, which represents kitchen workers, casino workers, and housekeepers. Most of the union’s members are Hispanic. However, Hillary received the endorsement of labor activist Richard Chavez, the brother of legendary union organizer and a highly-trafficked street in Austin, Cesar Chavez. She was also endorsed by the powerful Pregnant Powerwashing Nannies Union.

Osama bin Laden’s 26-year-old son, Omar Osama bin Laden, is on a mission. A mission… for peace. I’m guessing that the father-son relationship is a little strained.

Omar told the AP that he wants to be an ambassador for peace between Muslims and the West. Omar’s 52-year-old cougar British wife, Zaina Alsabah Jane Felix-Browne, wishes to be an advocate as well. First plan of action: a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to their cause. Wouldn’t a concert suffice?

Although Omar, one of Osama’s 192 children, once trained at an al Qaeda camp, he decided he didn’t want to go into the family business. Omar said that he hasn’t been in contact with his father since leaving Afghanistan for Egypt. “He doesn’t have e-mail,” Omar said, which explains why Osama hasn’t replied to any of the State Department’s emails to osama.bin.laden@gmail.com.

An appeals court this week overturned a whopping $1.5 million verdict awarded to a woman who was spanked in front of her co-workers. Her employer called it a “camaraderie-building exercise.” I call it “happy hour.”

In 2006, a jury ruled that the home security company Alarm One was guilty of sexual harassment and sexual battery when they paddled Janet Orlando. What’s the full name of the company, Alarm One Kappa Alpha? Sigma Alarm One Phi Epsilon?

The California Court of Appeal overturned that verdict, saying that whether Orlando was spanked because she’s a woman is unclear — if gender wasn’t a proven factor, then the sexual harassment charge doesn’t apply. Lawyers for Alarm One claim that the spankings were not discriminatory because both male and female workers were spanked, and that Orlando was a willing participant. You could tell by what she was wearing that day.

Poncho Baker, an Alarm One attorney, said that the company has gone into bankruptcy battling Orlando’s claim. “Good luck retrying this one,” Baker said. “She wanted to get something out of this? She already did, if you ask me.”

The team-building exercises pitted sales employees against one another, in a yard-sign paddling contest that would put all other corporate yard-sign paddling contests to shame. The winners got to throw pies at the losers, feed them baby food, make them wear diapers and spank them. Sounds like our editorial meetings.