keep your arms and hands inside the blog

So, I've been a little snippy lately. I don't know what it is, but my mouth has seemed to have had a second helping of vicious. I've put on an invisible muzzle, but it seems to fall off now and again. The weirdest things are setting me off, like the loud-mouth lady in Linnaea's this morning who was BLAH BLAH BLAHING a poor German couple to death, using all kinds of definitive statements about what my town is like. Grrrrrr.



There is an old comic that used to be in the LA Weekly called The Angriest Dog in the World. The fang-baring pooch is always seen in the back yard straining hard against its chain. Grrring and Mrrring. Lately I've been that dog. So what's chaining me? I dunno.

Steve Moss passed away this week. I didn't know him, but of course knew his name. He helped start the New Times (SLO Town's alt weekly rag) and invented 55 Fiction. So this morning I was thinking, you know, he was too young to go, but dude! he invented 55 Fiction. And while it wasn't a cure for cancer it is a little art form that is used all across the world now. Good for Steve Moss. I'm sorry for his untimely passing.

I've been writing a lot. Articles, press releases, information pages, web sites. I kind of pride myself about being easy going with my writing. If somebody needs to change some words, change some paragraphs, I don't take it personally and encourage them to edit as necessary. The important thing is that the client gets a chance to express their goals the way they want and need, right?

Well. Okay, maybe it was because I'm the Queen Regent of Snippety Snappity. Maybe it's being the Angriest Emdot in the World. But yesterday one of my clients (who is also a good friend) sent me back an interview I'd written with rivets of red. Valleys of red. A complete gridwork of red. Slashed and burned. There were "the"s added. Thats added. Commas, periods, parentheses. Entire quotes changed. And in a presto-second I think I felt the hair on the back of my neck bristle.

And now I'm laughing because it's funny to get so worked up. In hindsight. In hindsight many things are much funnier than they are in non-hindsight. Which is what? Foresight? In your shoes sight? But man, I was ready to go word-for-word through the whole document and stand up for my little spelled-out beauties. And so we did.

Moral of the story? Working things out with friends is better than the alternative. Or something. Lesson of the story? Perhaps I should back off from the extra cup of coffee? Or maybe I just need to turn the computer off for a while and go for a very long walk. Or atleast as long as the chain will let me.