Oh. My. Gosh.

I just hung up with Brenda Lee. I think I love her.

I talk to a lot of "famous" people as a matter of course, whether they're local celebrities or world leaders (I interviewed a former president of Poland once). The artistic types usually are prickliest. (The politicians and diplomats are always smooth enough to say what they think they should instead of what they're really thinking.) But wow, it's been a long time since I've run into someone with this level of notoriety who was so down to earth and friendly and actually interested, rather than just going through the motions. She even had some advice for my boy, the musician.

I also have to offer kudos to Sky for supplying most of my questions , though once we got rolling I came up with a few of my own

Wow, it'll be nice to do something right for a change. I hope the freaking editors notice. I got email from the entertainment editor this morning asking the status of this story. I told him he would have it by the end of the day and he wrote back and said "that's awesome, thank you -- I can always count on you." I asked him to forward that to the bosses! Maybe it will help.

Candy