Hey, look - a byline.

I talked with this guy yesterday, after the seventh summit in two years, held between five Andean countries to discuss economic alternatives for the camposinos harvesting pot and coke leaves out in the jungle.

When it was clear this guy did not want to say anything substantive - which activates the "these guys really aren't getting shit done, are they" alarm in my head - I threw out the classic "How would the United States participate (or not participate) in these counterdrug efforts, given the latest controversy?"

Boom! He goes off about how they're continuing to work with the DEA through the embassy, regardless of the politics - how this issue is too important to be sidetracked by politics. Booyakasha! Need a story? Ask a top Venezuelan official about the U.S., add contents, stir, shake, rinse, repeat.

But the whole missionaries update on-down is totally not me. I think that's ridiculously hard-working AP correspondent Natalie. Uranium deposits? Christ. You don't think that deserves its own story, instead of buried in mine?

Ah well, Natalie's the one who generously let me hide out in her apartment for a week, and she told me after working for this news agency for three years, you're not exactly scrambling for a byline day-in-day-out...as would a certain desperate broke J-schooler seeking employment.