In case you hadn't put two and two together, all these articles are about my company. And not just my company, but, the Liverpool facility I'm based in! They say any publicity is good publicity, but I'm not sure this qualifies. On the other hand, when random people (like that woman sitting next to me on the plane - you know who you are. Look, when my book is open and my headphones are on, that's a pretty clear sign that I don't want to talk to you. Don't take it personally, I don't want to talk to anyone else, either. The stewardess gets it - why don't you?) asks me what I do for a living, I can pretty much get away with just "you hear about the flu vaccine thing? Yeah, I work for that company." The really special moment in all of this is when my beloved company started making up words to describe the situation. I can only state two things - a) I can honestly state I'm far enough removed from the flu vaccines manufacturing process that I'm clearly not to blame (which didn't keep friends and family from asking if it was my fault their kid wasn't going to get the flu shot this year) and b) - no, wait. That's all I've got. It's not my fault. So cover your mouth when you cough, and wash your hands more. You'll get your shot next year.

Bay Area library embarrassed by mural After a $40,000 ceramic mural was unveiled outside Livermore's new library, everyone could see the misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures. Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday by The Associated Press, Maria Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work [for another $6,000 plus expenses], but offered no apologizes for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names. "The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work." There were plenty of people around during the installation who could and should have seen the missing and misplaced letters, she said. The mistakes wouldn't even register with a true artisan, Alquilar said. "The people that are into humanities, and are into Blake's concept of enlightenment, they are not looking at the words," she said. "In their mind the words register correctly." Grossly overpaid, hideous art funded by my tax dollars is one thing. But when it's grossly overpaid hideous misspelled art, well that's where I draw the line, missy.