Just back from DC, I did the last thing I felt like doing, which was book my tickets to Philly for the AAN annual convention. I am leading an event called “speed bitching,” which is not, unfortunately, just me complaining while on crack. Actually, I don’t really know exactly what it is or how it’s going to work, but I swear to you, if you’re planning to attend, it’s going to be AWESOME and if I do score some crack I will share it. Pretty sure we’ll be in the right city for it.
Speaking of which, yes, home again, home again, skippity skip. I haven’t been back to Philly in, I’m pretty sure, a decade, possibly 15 years. It’s hard to keep track of time when you spend so much time denying its passage. At any rate, it’s been a long-ass time, long enough that I have, in fact, no family or friends there, so as far as homecomings go, it will be a little low-key. Also, I pretty much hated every minute I lived there and have lived in SF longer than I lived there, so I guess you could describe my attitude about the whole thing as ambivalent. At best.
Speaking of attitudes, our copyeditor has taken on the daunting task of scheduling all the politicos in for their endorsement interviews. The ones who have gone through this before are behaving pretty well about the whole thing. We interview all the candidates in a group since a. we are a tiny staff and that’s the only way to do it and b. if they are going to talk shit about one another, I’d just as soon they do it in front of each other so that the shit-talkers and shit-talkees can respond to one another. Also, it keeps things fair, as in everyone answers the same questions and gets about the same amount of time. It’s not a complex thing, but you’d think we were asking them all to come in naked and recite Shakespeare (now there’s an idea). Listening to Karen answer their questions (Wiviott’s campaign person just asked her if the candidates would be required to sit in a circle. Um, yeah, and hold hands…WTF?). The silly part of it is, the ones that get it get that, hey, do you want our endorsement? (Answer: Yes, you do). Then do what we say, come in, answer our questions and appear to be thoughtful and accessible. Do you NOT want our endorsement (No, you don’t not want it). Then argue and ask annoying questions and be a pain in the ass about it. (And, no, it wasn’t just Wiviott’s campaign person being annoying, that was just the most recent example). Fortunately, Karen is talking to these people and not me, because she is very patient whereas I, as you may have noticed, am not.