Has a flight ever left Chicago O’Hare on time? Like, ever?  I’m sure one has. I just don’t think I’ve ever been on one.

(Guess where I am. Guess whose flight is delayed.)

Well, I might have been on one that left on time, if the flight I had into O’Hare hadn’t been delayed (due to traffic snarls at O’Hare), causing me to be reassigned to a flight that is delayed.

Despite that everything is fine, thanks. Since I’ve never known a flight departing from O’Hare to leave on time, as soon as I saw that I was heading there, I framed my brain for acceptance that I would not arrive where I was supposed to be any time close to when I was supposed to get there. My meetings aren’t until tomorrow morning, however. As long as I get to where I’m going before, oh, 8am, I’m fine. And I charged all my portable devices last night. And I brought four books, like I always do. I’ll be fine.

That said, I hope your day has not been as delay-tastic as mine.

This time I’m traveling through Saturday; pretty sure I’ll be checking in on a semi-regular basis, however. I’ll be posting a Big Idea piece either later today or tomorrow, as well (and then, I think, more than one next week — I have a lot of early April releases to highlight).

In the meantime, get your requests in for Reader Request Week! Because how can I dance like a monkey for you if you won’t throw me peanuts?

Every year, right around this time, I put away my imbecilic obsessions here at Whatever and turn the spotlight onto your imbecilic obsessions instead. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time once again for Reader Request Week, in which you call the shots — you choose the topics I write about — you make me dance like the proverbial monkey. No topic is off limits, no request too serious or ridiculous, no query left unconsidered! It’s my way of thanking you for your readership, and also, a way to rest my brain and not have to think up what damn fool thing to write about next.

Here’s how it works: You think up of a topic you want me to expound upon, and put it into the comment thread. Starting next Monday (3/31/08), I’ll start picking subjects to write about from the suggestions left by all y’all. It’s just that simple.

This will be the sixth year we do Reader Request Week, so to avoid repeats, here’s what’s been asked and answered from the previous years:

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

From 2005:

Reader Request #1: Creative Commons and FanFic
Reader Request #2: Peak Oil
Reader Request #3: Beatles, Batman and They
Reader Request #4: Pot!
Reader Request #5: Odds and Ends

From 2006:

Reader Request #1: SF Novels and Films
Reader Request #2: 10 Childhood Nuggets
Reader Request #3: Writers and Technology
Reader Request #4: The Nintendo Revolution
Reader Request #5: A Political Judiciary
Reader Request #6: Paranoid Parents
Reader Request #7: Writing About Writing

From 2007:

Reader Request #1: Justifying My Life
Reader Request #2: Coffee, or Lack Thereof
Reader Request #3: BaconCat Fame
Reader Request #4: The Inevitable Blackness That Will Engulf Us All
Reader Request #5: Out of Poverty
Reader Request #6: Short Bits
Reader Request #7: Short Bits II: Electric Boogaloo
And there you have it.

Okay, so: What do you want me to write about? Put it in the comment thread, and beginning Monday, we’ll get this party started.