McEachran did me another favor when he dropped a memo on my desk that said only "P-E-O-P-L-E." I'd been writing too many thumbsuckers from my desk and he wanted me to get out and talk to real folks again.

I would like to write some things that take advantage of what I have learned. Stuff that has stuck in my head, so to speak. What editors call 'thumbsuckers' but writers call 'think pieces.'

A tick-tock (the metaphor, obviously, of a clock moving toward a fateful hour) is often written with boldface dates indicating significant meetings or preliminary events, and is more reportorial than a "think piece" or "thumbsucker,"