LESS IS ELMORE: Here's a great read on why I love Elmore Leonard. (He's my favorite writer.) I know this is a cop-out for actually posting something interesting to this space, but I'm in the process of rethinking my blog and my commitment to it. Sorry folks, but after a year, I may be burning out on this. I'll keep y'all posted.

PUNISHMENT: A good one from Jennifer

STATION IDENTIFICATION: This blog is brought to you by Jake, who really truly loves Lorraine. (Awww...) Peace out.

BYLINE: Heh, C&F have a political cartoon using my blog's byline! (Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.)

IT'S DONE: So I've wrestled with the phone companies today and actually came out ahead! Sprint zeroed out all of the erroneous charges and I'm left with a small monthly bill to pay that less than 1/4 of what they claimed I owe them. Ditto AT&T who finally agreed that my wife did indeed cancel her account and return her phone (tip: faxing them the receipt seemed to grease the wheels; tip two: AT&T Wireless is practically two companies, the old "digital" company and the new "GSM" company, with separate billing and accounting services.) That left good old Verizon, whom I promptly cut the cord to. I bit the bullet and signed up with IDT for their $40 all you can eat plan. Yay me!

DO I HAVE A SIGN ON MY BACK? It seems that January is the month all the telephone service providers I use decided to fleece me. First there's Verizon, whom I have a special loathing for, who decided that my $40 basic phone service and long distance plan really means $80. Then there's AT&T Wireless, who, like a senile old woman, decided that my wife really didn't cancel her service with them and return her phone, so we owe them for January. Then there's Sprint. Ah Sprint. How do you explain to the minimum wage slave that will undoubtedly answer my irate customer service call that instead of putting my wife and I on a shared plan with 2,000 minutes, free nights and weekends and unlimited internet for $110 they've put us on the Halliburton "let's rape our customer" $600 plan (I wasn't even aware of such a deal, had I only known beforehand..) Looks like I'll be spending next week sparring with wonderful telco service reps to sort this out so I can use my money for more important endeavors, like food and rent. Cheers.