OK, real quick, 'cause, well, I'm real busy. Let's leave it at that.

My friend Lights officially had the crappiest Valentines Day out of all of us. She spent the day cleaning after a toilet overflow. I did not request further details, but I'll add that she does have a husband.

Secondly, Chicago woke up to a front-page Redeye spread on multi-racial people. The Redeye's basically a watered-down, sugary hip version of the Tribune designed to lure in a younger readership, so it's not exactly hard-hitting reporting, but this is a pretty decent article that hits on the main issues.

In a society demanding conformity on all levels, being multi-racial can be a bitch, but like the article's sources point out: You just have to transcend everyone else's expectation about race, whether they're spoken and unspoken, and just go with the flow and be proud of your heritage, period. Once you get to that point - easier said than done - life can be a beautiful thing.

Beyond having broad sales appeal, some say multiracial looks are just the "in" thing right now.

[*gasp*] 'To insinuate that Dickie Cronkite could ever go out of fashion?! Shocking!


***********************


Finally, in a story meeting yesterday the editor on the Urban desk called the lakeshore here "the beach." I managed to exercise considerable restraint, but I still haven't fully recovered. When will these people learn...