"His Head's On Fire-Get Makeup Over Here!"

The same company that sent her (and me) to Athens last year decided they want her to do a commercial for their product, a new, super thin needle to inject insulin. She's a pretty hard sell, but is pumped about this new needle, and agreed, for a ridiculous amount of money, to be filmed describing the merits of the thing.

She told me they'd be at the house this morning at 7, and at 6:45 they began filling up the drive. By seven there were three cars, a pickup and an SUV, all filled with movie type stuff and people. In they came, very nice, very professional, brisk people who knew just what they wanted. They wanted the ping pong room, sans the table.

They covered the east-facing window inside and out, and set up a faux office as a set. The Girl was fabulous, never missing a beat, not seeming to get tired of doing it over and again.

This was supposed to last three hours. In that time I received two reprimands. One for getting a glass of water from the refrigerator door (!) - "We hear everything" - and again when I returned from the bank for having opened the garage door. I tried to make the point that if I had driven out without opening the door it would have been much noisier still, but was shooed out of the area.

About 11 the cry went out for Fresh Meat. Seems they needed someone besides Herself to demonstrate the ease with which the needle slides in and out of the flesh of someone who looks like a patient. She was rather quick to offer me up, I thought, something about "he oughta be good for something, you'd think."

I was seated, posed, straightened, restraightened, desquinted, and then came the above cry from the producer. I was duly and plentifully powdered. A brief discussion ensued on whether the addition of a hat might be necessary to staunch the glare. Other options considered: "Nope." "Not me!" "You ain't stickin' me with no needle." And in not the first instance ever, I was the last resort.

"DON'T look at the camera. All we need is the needle going into your arm." Six, seven times they needed it. But in truth, I really couldn't feel it. This new needle is really sumpin.

I'll be signing autographs in the hall for a couple hours after the show.