I usually avoid her pieces because they're not worth anything, much less my time, but Maureen Dowd is looking to make some extra dough, too. In today's column she writes:

I still have many Christmas bills to pay. So I'd like to send a message to the administration: THIS SPACE AVAILABLE.

I'd love to take her up on this one. While Krugman took a much-needed break to seek counselor last fall after the elections (he promised to be gone till January but then, one dark day, came back because he felt obliged to set the record straight on Social Security...he hasn't gone away since), and Safire wrote his last column this past Monday, Dowd hasn't been on vacation nearly enough. I could think of lots of people that would be better for the paper and better for readers. So if she's serious, why not post the idea on eBay and see what happens? If it can work for Amber Rainey, it can definitely work for Maureen Dowd!