Bad Idea of the Week

Why don't these revolutionary, cost-cutting plans ever involve selling the publisher's beach house in the Hamptons?

Or at least, giving the writers a weekend in the guest house, pool privileges and a basket of skin care products?

Read all about it in today's New York Times .

Question: Whose accountant decides what "costs" are and what "profits" are?

Clue: Salaries at a publishing house are "costs."

Ask anyone who has ever written for Hollywood with a promise of "points on the back end" whether this is a potential problem.

In the immortal words of Stevie "Guitar" Miller, "Take the money and run."

Not that this matters much to poets.