Death to editors*

My literary day so far:

1) Conversation with a travel editor.

"I wondered if you would be interested in a piece on the alternative, non-Tutakhamun side of travel in Egypt."

"Very interested. But I can't pay you a penny."

2) A newspaper for whom I have written some fifty times on matters of security and conflict won't take a piece warning that Colombo may soon be the focus of increasing terrorist attacks unless I can find 'an expert' who'll say that I'm right.

3) The editor of a paper for whom I write regularly on arts matters won't make a ruling on a feature - for the main pages - while his arts editor is away. By the time the arts editor returns, needless to say, the story will be dead.

Death to editors!

--
* This was going to be one of my Titles Gone Begging; but now I've decided to save it for a volume of collected journalism instead.