Excerpt from one of the 1,000,000,000,000 pieces of spam in this morning's mailbox:

"Hello,

Did you know the Government gives away money for almost any reason? ...$15,500 to over $650,000 in FREE Grant Money is Available TO YOU IMMEDIATELY!"

Anyone who has just spent entirely too many weeks working on fellowship proposals can point out the flaws in this one. Pity that spammers aren't subjected to peer review. (Then again, most of his peers -- other spammers -- would love it). Any relation, perhaps, between this 'bot and the ones that are still trying to sell me mail-order diplomas?

In other, very good news: The program manager for the most recent fellowship proposal gave me a deadline extension for the best of reasons: Just as I was about to upload my application, I got word that my second full-length article was accepted by a major journal. I had to update four separate application documents to reflect this. (It's very difficult to settle down at the computer and edit documents when you're already busy dancing the happy dance.) Anyway, the proposal got done, and I did submit it on the actual deadline date (although not by the original deadline hour). Best advice I ever got from Sue, my mentrix for all things grant-related: Never be too proud to telephone the program manager.

Oh, and just to keep the banner ads consistent for a while: Ants ants ants ants ants ants ants ants ants ants ants.