Site visitstrictly editorial

November 20, 2006

We have commuted to a client office for the first time in what feels like a decade but is, on reflection, barely four years. All in all —three miles of walking and thirty miles of subway travel each day— a tidy experience. Too little to do but generous enough recompense, affable people, and pleasant circumstances. The $800 and scribbing edits by hand on the train amount to a worthwhile change of pace, but only that.

Among other things, single-tracking metro trains entertains only on the first go-round. "Would passengers to Glenmont please move to the Shady Grove platform. All Red Line trains will arrive and depart from the Shady Grove platform. Please stand back. Another train will arrive in one minute. Will all Glenmont passengers please return to the Glenmont platform. Please stand back. Another train will arrive in two minutes." How many passengers can fit in a subway train? Far more than the laws of physics would indicate. How many people can cram onto a subway platform? Far more than security guards would prefer.

We have also gotten an increase in our hourly rate at Russell Sage. Not by much, but very pleasant when one hasn't asked for it. The next question being how soon we can move beyond the introductory rate at Sage Publications.

Will we work on our political thriller tonight? Have we the stamina . . .

The momentary silence was deafening, as all watched this middle aged, elegant beauty dance effortlessly across the floor.

Hiking their way up a hillside, the vice president and Frank Gwenyth loquaciously bantered like two teenage boys who had skipped school.

Not tonight, Josephine.