Still waiting for a thank you from George Clooney

Years ago, when I was a writer for the TV show "Step By Step", I had a small office on the Warner Bros. lot. The best thing about the office was the single window which sat right above the basketball hoop where the cast of "ER" played ball. I could have opened that window and thrown crumpled script pages at them. (As a sitcom writer I had a lot of time to think about things that had nothing to do with sitcom writing.) Anyway, the cast will never know what I didn't do so they'll never thank me.

Other people I know make better use of their time, like Jane who spent a couple of hours at the shelter yesterday grooming this girl named Tommy...

... who was completely ignored by this nearby resident:



(Hhmm... much the way George Clooney ignored me.)

Later, Andrea took out a couple of dogs for walks and photo sessions...

... which they quite obviously did appreciate.

And Tommy got lucky. A couple came to adopt her even before her beauty parlor appointment was over. And since she was already spayed, as soon as the paperwork was done she went home.

Meanwhile, dogs and cats and everything else keep coming in, literally by the bucketful:

Incidentally, although I never told Mr. Clooney that I could have lobbed water balloons at him and his colleagues, we did have a brief conversation once when the "Step By Step" writers had to interrupt and walk through their game on our way to watch a rehearsal.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: Always getting in the way. Those pesky writers.

George (with a grin): Damn writers.

I will remember it forever.