Attention Wise Readers (if you remember who you are): Yeah, about that story I promised by mid-August…. Right. Well. Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e., the Muse absconding to Mexico to drown my sorrows, the bitch), we’re going to have to push the deadline to the end of the month. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a lump of insipid bullshit. And I refuse to do that to my characters, much less my readers.

The story’s developing, mind. And, according to NP, it’s going to be an incredible read. According to me, it’ll be tolerable. Middling-good. You folks will get the opportunity to decide for yourselves soon.

Firefox is my new best friend: When Sitemeter pwnd Explorer, thus denying me my daily fix of Pharyngula, I broke down and downloaded Firefox. If you don’t use Firefox yet, you’re so missing out. Do you realize I now don’t have to spend ten fucking years reformatting clips? I cut, paste, blockquote, and Firefox takes care of line breaks and emphasis-in-original without a single quibble. It’s pathetic to be this excited over a browser, but, you know, I am.

Posting might get weird: I tend to hit a lot of current events here, but I’ve been busy building up a grabbag of posts of not-as-topical importance so that I can free up time to, you know, get that story done. Eventually. So if you find yourself thinking, “Why the hell didn’t Dana unleash the Smack-o-Matic upon today’s outrageous religious and/or political fuckery? How could she have missed it?!” you’ll know why. If you don’t plan to write about it yourself, you can always send an email to dhunterauthor at yahoo dot com letting me know you’re disappointed. If you wrote about it yourself, send me your link.

Speaking of topics...: If you have anything you’d like me to cover for Sunday Sensational Science, I’d be grateful to hear about it.

Speaking of emailing: I barely caught a missive from a reader wanting me to critique a bit o’ her writing. It got stuck in my Hotmail junk folder. Where people are getting my Hotmail address from, I don’t know, but that’s the worst possible address to use. That’s for my political alerts, pizza coupons, and general total crap. Use the above referenced Yahoo address instead, and make absolutely sure your subject line can’t possibly be misconstrued as a spammer. Also keep in mind that my free time is about as rare as rational discourse on Worldnut Daily, so it could be some time before you hear back on any requests for my tender attentions.

And if you’re not in it for the brutal honesty, absolutely do not send me your damned story. I’m operating under the assumption you want me to make you a better writer, not stroke your ego, and I shall proceed accordingly. It could make Hitchens’ waterboarding jaunt look like a day at the waterpark. Be warned.

Saving the best for last, You: I’ve noticed a crop of new commenters along with my beloved regulars, and everybody’s made me grin, gasp, or go “Damn! Wish I’d thought of that…” at least once apiece this week. You deserve the biggest damned drink in the house, on the house. Since I can’t give it to you in anything but a virtual manner, you’ll just have to let those closest to you know that Dana sez you get to drink on them.

And I can at least give you a picture of the most expensive tequila in the world:

Here’s to the day when we can all bathe in fountains of the stuff.