So Many Icebergs, So Many Tips

Remember that forwarded email you got a few (maybe more than a few) years back about that person who was trying to write his/her dissertation (or thesis or manuscript or whatever) and with a crucial two weeks to go, decided that the only way s/he could find the inspiration to write more was if s/he painted the room a different color? And the color wasn't right and so s/he had to paint it again and then something like a wall had to be knocked down and the whole thing snowballed into a disastrous home reno that consumed their life and the person was writing this email to get their story out so that no one else would ever, ever let something like that happen again?

I think of that email a lot.

And I just received another one, this from a colleague who is also madly writing her diss, with an impossible due date looming. You see, it's been very hot here in Bmore this past week or so and all indications are that it will stay hot, and my friend's cat - a very, very hairy cat with a luxurious, thick, stifling, suffocating coat (I've heard the word 'pantaloon' used without irony in reference to this cat's gloriousness) - was feeling the heat and shedding like crazy and generally bugging the shit out of everyone. So, as a humanitarian gesture, my friend decided to -- no euphemism here at all--



-- shave her cat.

Iceberg, meet your tip. (Sorry sp, I couldn't resist...)