Once a year — usually when I find myself running out of things to say myself — I throw open the floor to Whatever readers to offer topics for a Reader Request Week, in which (as the name suggests) I write on subjects readers want to know what I think about. I’ve done this for the last three years and have gotten some great topic ideas. Because Whatever readers totally rock, man.

So: Want me to write on a particular topic? Suggest it in the comment thread. I’ll start putting up entries based on reader suggestions on Monday. I usually do one a day, but if I get a bunch of really excellent topics (and so far, I usually do), who knows.

What topics can you suggest? Why, any topic you like, of course. Nothing’s out of bounds to ask (I just won’t answer it if I don’t want to. See? Easy). And as you all know, it’s not like I have a problem writing about controversial or questionable topics. Look, I never plan on holding elected office, and if I ever do, it’s not like I don’t already have a paper trail as wide as the mighty Mississippi. So it really doesn’t matter. Ask away, folks.

So you don’t repeat subjects, allow me here to link to previous reader request topics:

From 2003:

Reader Request #1: The Middle East
Reader Request #2: Life Online
Reader Request #3: TV
Reader Request #4: Testing Preschoolers
Reader Request #5: Jealousy
Reader Request #6: Immigration
Reader Request #7: Ohio
Reader Request #8: Writing
Reader Request Wrapup

From 2004:

Reader Request Week 2004 #1: Boys and Girls
Reader Request 2004 #2: The Meaning of Life
Reader Request 2004 #3: Can Writing Be Taught?
Reader Request 2004 #4: Fatherhood and Pie
Reader Request 2004 #5: Objective Newspeople
Reader Request Week 2004 Wrapup

From 2005:

Reader Request Week 2005: Creative Commons and FanFic
Reader Request Week 2005: Peak Oil
Reader Request 2005: Beatles, Batman and They
Reader Request 2005: Pot!
Reader Request 2005: Odds and Ends

And there you have it.

Get your requests in, and we’ll start getting busy on Monday!

No, I’m not pulling her tail. She really is just yawning.

Question for a y’all, at least those of all y’all who are cat owners. Ghlaghghee here, being a longhair cat as she is, has developed some truly gnarly mats of hair while we weren’t paying attention — I mean, massive mats. Proto-dreadlock mats. Is there any way of getting rid of these mats short of shaving off huge sections of her fur, thereby making her look as if she had mange — which, while it would be amusing, seems a little drastic? I’m trying to avoid doing that but right now I’m coming up blank for other ideas. So I throw this out to the crowd.

Also, telling me that if I had a shorthair cat (or some other shorthair animal) I wouldn’t be having this problem is not helpful. Please avoid “helpiness” — comments that aren’t actually helpful because the’re predicated on perameters that are not relevant to the problem — and embrace helpfulness. The alternative is a shaved, naked cat. And then Yawncat here really won’t be pleased.