Dispatches

Sorry I have been a lax blogger! There is nothing like making the switch from freelance to full time to sap the blogging spirit. The new work schedule necessitates a new leisure schedule, not to mention a new sleep schedule, and so blogging is getting short shrift.

Beyond that--excuses, excuses--I have been particularly busy writing stuff for newsprint. I wrote a ton for the arts section in the paper this week, mostly in dribs and drabs, all of it stuff I signed on to do as a freelancer.

I promise to blog more regularly from now on. Meanwhile, I want to comment on Terry Teachout's response to a reader who wondered whether he listens to music as he writes. Quoth Teachout: "Having at one time spent the better part of a decade working in a cubicle at the New York Daily News, I no longer need silence in order to write."

Gods, grant me that superpower! I'm still getting used to writing in a cubicle at a newspaper, as opposed to writing at home, alone. I've adjusted reasonably well to the whole "wearing clothes while I work" thing, but I yearn for the day when I am able to efficiently churn out copy amid the hum of a busy office. Would it help to chomp a cigar?