I'd just like to take a minute to thank the staff writers here at Stay of Execution for getting 2004 off to a busy and dramatic start. The editorial board challenged them as a group, at year-end 2003:
"Listen up, you guys. Ratings are way way down. What are you doing here? The main character, Scheherazade, is BORING. She's happy with her Boyfriend, content with her job, driving around in her Honda Accord with her four-legged dog, dutifully saving up her money and planning for retirement. BORING. The only interesting thing here is this marathon she's training for -- but she's walking it? Walking?! Walking is not dramatic, to say the least. You guys can do better."
They really rose to the challenge, I think, eliminating the Boyfriend right away, throwing in that little food-poisoning twist to the marathon and instead making me trudge around Portland for seven hours in the freezing cold weather. And they got rid of the Honda Accord not long after, and replaced it with a sexier car with better screen test abilities. Housemate, who'd been lonesome and feeling abandoned and a little bit blue all fall, emerged as a foil when she gets a sunny, energetic and handsome boyfriend, with a charismatic dog, and the house becomes a domestic love-fest. And then there was the amputation of my dog. Some minor home improvements -- new roof, new water heater -- probably just a way to draw down that savings account to a more precarious position. A family member on his deathbed -- a nice touch. And now the job shake-up. Perfectly scripted, I think, especially given the demographics of the readership, which is somewhat heavily skewed toward the risk-averse folks in the legal profession. The writers have struggled a bit with the romantic plotlines -- whatever happened with that guy I smooched around the Democratic Caucus, anyway, and didn't I have a date not long ago, and who's this old flame I saw yesterday and why was I crying on his chest? But, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. All told, I think they've done a bang-up job. Quite literally, they've banged things right up.
I encourage you to stay tuned. They don't let me see the scripts until, well, the truth is they never let me see them. Where would the drama be in that? So I can't tip you off to coming events. All they've told me is that by the end of June I won't be getting a paycheck from the place I've been for the past few years, and on June 30 I'll be stepping onto a plane for a week in Montana. Who knows what I'll discover out there, or what I'll come back to?
I think this is my favorite post of yours.
Posted by: Milbarge | June 01, 2004 at 04:09 PM