Very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but I was forced to call in sick at work today. I was very tired, run down, and muddled all day yesterday and was getting pretty achy and cranky by late afternoon. Then this morning I awoke in an incredibly dizzy and nauseous state, so I tried getting ahold of my back-up resource Wendy J. but she had not turned on her cell phone. Since I was already scheduled with some big important partner I'd never worked with before, I bundled up without showering and started off on a dazed trudge to the G train anyway, but soon after I turned the corner onto Nassau Avenue I got incredibly light-headed and threw up in the gutter, to the consternation of a henna-sporting pack of Polish ladies who were sitting on a stoop watching me with disapproval. Luckily when I returned to the apartment Wendy J. called me back and I was able to get everything worked out to the clients' satisfaction before passing out in a feverish heap. I'm still far from well, but I've gotten a hot tip from reader Andrea B. that needs to get out posthaste: the Torino Olympics now have mascots, and they are a great improvement over that crap they tried to pawn off on us in Athens (well, I'm just talking about the official 2004 mascots, of course). 2006!!!