Props to Sid for inspiring today’s fun experiment by surprising me with work this morning. Kombat! Klients: please call and ask for quick turnarounds on short notice, as I will do that shit and bill you richly. There is no Combat! blog today, because I am a professional writer who solves problems in exchange for money. Hire me, and I will meet your deadline even at the expense of my own projects. Anywhom, more than one of you sent me this article about what’s wrong with academic writing. I have a lot to say about it, but lately I’ve been trying to stay away from pieces that can be described as “here’s what I think about this article.” I’m already presumptuous to think people want my opinions on arbitrarily selected topics; to ask them to read primary-source documents seems narcissistic. But this once, we could all read the linked article today and talk about it tomorrow, and see how we like that. Maybe there could be a Combat! reading club, like a book club but where we all read. Until that day. Which is tomorrow—until tomorrow.

Remember all the top-flight commentary I churned out over the last few days? Me neither, but I have an excuse: I’ve been sick with Middle-East respiratory syndrome (self-diagnosed.) Aside from entertaining my mother, it’s been bed rest for me since Monday. My hard work has paid off, though, and now I’m starting to feel better. For example, I am finally coherent enough to peer at Excel spreadsheets and generate invoices, which is what I need to do today instead of writing a blog. Sorry, you guys: this Arab flu has my whole schedule bolloxed up. While I expectorate tan foam that adheres to the sink, how about you read this excellent examination of Liberalism and Gentrification from Jacobin Magazine? Sure it’s about real estate and urban living, but it’s also about the tectonic-force division of America into two classes. We’ll be back tomorrow with right accounts receivable and Friday links.