Haters gotta hate: standing in the coffee line.

This was the best part of my morning.

Haters gotta hate.

Let's all learn from this experience.

Dave patiently explained the sundry of costs associated with assembling a show comprised of headliners in a small jazz club, then the rule of thumb in entertainment that one should charge prices similar to one's nearest competitor. He rounded off with the reminder, "I'm ten bucks cheaper than my nearest competitor." Which is true. Plus, the show ran for nearly four hours. That's quite a bargain.

Rules for being a good inquirer:

1) Save questions for the appropriate time and place. Do you have a press pass in your pocket? Are you running a credit check?

2) Ask yourself: why are you asking the question? Do you care about the answer?

3) Don't badger the subject just because you expected a different answer. Just listen to what they have to say.

4) Check the mirror. Are you Tom Brokaw? Ira Glass? Ed Murrow? Then sit on your damn hands and let the good people enjoy the show.

Our house is truly a bustling marketplace of ideas.

We were talking about this writing contest. It's in its first year and is run by a keen chap who plays a cop on the tee-vee.

Sassquach goes to the movies: Hugo.

Hugo: the first draft was a little different, genre-wise.

Thanks to Jason for inspiring this one.

It's ballet season! Bring on the Tchaikovsky!

Onegin starts Friday! It's going to be a hell of a season at the San Francisco ballet!