A Shot at Miss Conduct

Like I had to think about it! I was on the phone with her within a minute. Well, more like 30 minutes. First I had to do some research.

Found out that the Boston Globe Magazine is a Sunday supplement that goes to roughly 700,000 subscribers and has run for over a hundred years. In the last year, they revamped their look and feel and went from almost closing it down to turning a profit. I found out that Sunday magazines are big business, the premier one being The New York Times Magazine and, in fact, the NYT owns the Boston Globe. Furthermore, the associate editor was a Columbia Journalism School graduate and the editor came from Boston magazine. The world of publishing just got a little more interesting.

As part of the interview process they sent each applicant (there were four) three real questions and asked them to answer two or three as if they were the writer of the column. Six hundred words including the questions. Answers should be sophisticated, smart and hip with a conversational humorous tone. Twenty-four hours later I sent my column in. Ten minutes later I was asked for an interview. Oh, and by the way, as part of the job would it be OK to appear on television or online for chats occasionally? (Let me think about it yes.)

The interview on December 23rd went well. They told me they wanted to print my column in the January 23rd issue!! (Read it here .)

Can you believe it? I�ve been published! They also told me they would make a decision on who would take over the weekly column by mid-January. I was on pins and needles. Could it be? Would it be? A shot at Miss Conduct?! I told myself if I got the column, I�d buy myself my first pair of Manolo Blahniks, a la Carrie Bradshaw.

But alas, my piggies are still in my worn Keds a la unemployed wannabe. A Robin Abrahams got the column. Here's her winning entry. Bitch. What does a psychologist with impeccable credentials know about how people behave and conduct themselves? (Yikes, guess you would call that the real shot at Miss Conduct.)

Anyway, why wait for her brakes to fail, er, for nude pictures to surface, I mean for the Globe to come to me? (Kidding aside, congrats Robin.) My point is I can do my own column right here on my blog. See, this Miss Conduct opportunity got me thinking that an advice column is a perfect collaborative learning event. And if I put it online, why, it�s a web-based collaborative learning solution. On top of that, a blog is a lot like a magazine, so why not add an advice column?

I like this idea! My angle could be communicating etiquette, or communicating with EQ. It�s what I do in my job as a seminar leader, so it�s not a huge stretch, and as the Japenese proverb says: to teach is to learn.

Announcing Missy Q: Don�t know how to tell your boyfriend to get a clue or a co-worker to pitch in? Unsure how to ask your boss for a raise or a neighbor to stop being nosy? Ask Missy Q. (Get it? Miss EQ?)

I�ll refer to my own research as well as do Internet research for the best way to approach such communication dilemmas. I�ll provide an answer, like an advice columnist would, but better than that, anyone can answer the question and put their two cents in. Now that�s a collaborative learning experience!

So, send in your questions by leaving a comment in the space below. Or, you can email me personally by clicking on my name below. Or tell your friends and co-workers to send in their questions. You can even leave an anonymous question by leaving the email field blank.

Or, just say hi. Hope to hear from you!

P.S. Here and here are the other two applicants� submissions. Number 3
Number 4