1. I went to bed at two a.m. on Thursday morning.
2. I got up at six-thirty to write my “Sightings” column for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal.
3. At nine-fifteen, just as I was starting to draft the last sentence of the column, I received a terse e-mail from Eric Gibson, my editor at the Journal: “Think we need you to comment on Pinter’s Nobel for Sightings stedda agreed topic. Can do?”
4. “Pinter’s Nobel?” I said to myself, puzzled.
5. I checked the wires and found out that Harold Pinter had just won the Nobel Prize for literature.
6. Oaths were uttered.
7. I put aside Column No. 1 and spent the next five hours drafting and polishing Column No. 2.
8. My assistant showed up fifteen minutes early for an afternoon work session, only to discover that I’d been so busy working on Column No. 2 that I never got around to putting my clothes on. (Yes, she has keys.)
9. More oaths were uttered.
10. I got dressed, quickly.
11. The column got finished and filed shortly thereafter.
12. I staggered to a press preview of Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular. It was raining.
13. I sloshed home after the show, took the phone off the hook, and fell into bed.
If you want to talk to me, call back tomorrow. Or Sunday.
P.S. Read “Sightings” in the “Pursuits” section of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal.
P.P.S. You can always count on Mr. Alicublog to come out swinging!