Got an offer recently from a major news weekly to do a short column on a subject near and dear, so I said yes. Cranked 910 words this morning, and then painstakingly reduced it to 600 (actually, it's a lot of fun and I enjoy slimming down a piece so). Feels weird to have so many things in play right now: 1) the usual weekly column (this week on the story behind getting PNM published in China); 2) the shorter piece sitting with Esquire for their October issue ("Top 100 ideas"); 3) a longer piece for the same issue; 4) this piece for the news weekly; 5) a lengthy essay currently being edited for the Baker Center's flagship journal; 6) and, of course, the all-important proposal for Vol. III currently sitting on Neil Nyren's desk. Still, it makes sense to be writing so much in the typically slower summer. Now is the time to collect thoughts and cull stones, apparently.