My company moved my office around, and I'm now sitting next to a bunch of sales guys. Endless pitching: "let me tell you more about our newsletter service..." and cursing when people obviously give them the brush off.

The guy directly next to me plays the radio all day, just loud enough so that I can hear it, but just soft enough so that I can't tell what's playing.


And the chatter. Lots of chatter about the most mindless, banal stuff (hey, I just write about mindless banal stuff, I don't force anyone to read it).

A representative sample:

"Hey, does anyone know who XXXXX Henderson is? She sent me email"

"Maybe she's Florence Henderson's daughter (muffled giggle)."

"Who?"

"Florence Henderson. From the Brady Bunch. (laughter)"

"Hey was that show set in the 60s?"

Gosh, it's almost like I've got a table at the Algonquin.