I could probably build a prolific series of blogs on the add-on twist, rather like what Sandra Loh does in her NPR science segments. The factoid about Elvis ruling the late 50's and early 60's has some supporting factors (sales figures being persuasive), but a most non-talk radio then was ruled by middle of the road music. It's not as much the misconception that rankles as when decades ago I would be in the presence of Velvet Underground-type hipsters who would sneer, "Yes, Gent, you would know all about that, wouldn't you?" Back to scarfing money from the folks and pass the Patty Smith.

One of the "Miss Advice" sisters, I forget which, was rather abrasive. In writing one needs an anchor, a shtick, and one day she rammed her shtick up more than a few noses when she answered a letter from a lady who had been groped in an elevator, slapped they guy, and was beaten senseless. Why, wrote the wizard of what to do, you asked for it. You don't provoke these kind of people. Your fault!

The next week she wrote about all the names she'd been called in response said column. "Succubus of Satan" was quaint and literary compared to the over ripe verbal fruit and other substances wafted her way. Well, she wrote, I've given this some consideration and I was wrong. Back went the shtick where it usually resided.

Well, wonderful. What's my twist on this? As odious, my opinion, as the initial opinion was there is the towering enemy of every columnist, reformist or conformist, basking in celestial light or "see that void yonder": The empty page. Here were two columns and the follow-on was a break from the unplanned pregnancies, siblings who trash the shared room, and where the salad fork goes at a funeral dinner.

It was a tactic that worked for such Times charlatans as Hilburn and Simers, who had nothing write about to begin with.

What's my twist? Another blog, when and if I get around to it, and the subject will be reinventing the wheel.