Beck’s words haunted me last night. I dreamt Opal and her miniskirt were chasing me, trying to overtake me and my job.

I felt better this morning, though, upon remembering that Jesse has kept on Beverly Fields, a once-brilliant political reporter in her mid-sixties who’s beginning to go a bit loopy. Because Jesse always reads Beverly’s copy first, no one realized there was anything amiss until a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving when he went on vacation.

When Beverly’s articles went straight to the copy desk, the copy editors quickly discovered that she has a penchant for mixing up words that sound alike. Not just common flubs like “specific” and “Pacific,” but far more dangerous mistakes. It was all they could do not to howl as they fixed Beverly’s column on the anniversary of JFK’s assassination and the frequent references to the Texas Book Suppository.