There are those days when you sit down at your desk a little after 10 a.m. and realize it was indeed a good idea to buy impulsively that glazed donut at 7-11 because you'll be lucky if you can make it even two hours before devouring your lunch. It sucks when you can't eat any more breakfast, then not five minutes after you get to work, it's as if you hadn't eaten anything in the first place.

But then the new editor they've just hired -- which in some ways is just adding more cooks, if you know what I mean -- comes over and asks where the copy for your section is because now she's going to have a look at it before it gets flowed into the page, and you figure you'd best get that done before you do something as selfish as stuff a peanut-butter sandwich in your mouth.

And then it's 2:17 before you get to hear the sweet, vacuum-breaking fssssht as you open up your Coke and get a chance to stop the rumbling in your stomach.

That's how work's been lately. I've got various things to do for different deadlines spread over a few days, but each day something else is at the top of the list so that the other things get buried and then come back by sneaking up on me. Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., everything was put on hold while I awaited a phone call from a publicist who would then connect me with Lionel Richie for a phone interview. A few minutes after 4, my phone sat silent. Then I literally jumped when it rang. I thought that was kind of sad.

Lionel took about five minutes to respond to my first question, and in doing so knocked out the next five I had planned to ask. I think he's clairvoyant. It was a fun conversation, lasting about 20 minutes, though I expected the publicist to cut in after 15 minutes to tell me my time was up. He talked extensively about Nicole -- he's so proud -- and said goodbye with, "I'll see you somewhere out there on the prairie."

The key to having an interview with some celebrity -- particularly recording artists -- is to not send an e-mail out to the office soliciting questions. In that case, everyone's a smartass.

"You can ask him if he's ever really danced on the ceiling..."

"How about, 'Hello...is it me you're looking for?,"

"I would like to know if Lionel Richie will ever rejoin The Commodores and

create good songs? Thanks."

"Ask him if he's really 'easy like Sunday morning.'"

I learned my lesson and didn't solicit any questions for my sit-down with Dick Clark yesterday. In light of his health announcement, he was in New York to do interviews, and I was given 15 minutes with him. I only needed 10, partly because we went to press Monday night, so this was more of a quote-gathering mission for potential use in the future. I had to conduct the interview with three people from the PR firm in the room and I felt weird enough as it was asking a 74-year-old TV staple about his health problems. It was fun, however, chatting about one of my favorite shows as a kid, TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, and music and American Dreams.

Then I looked at the neat old black-and-white photos of New York in the building's lobby and bought an ice cream cone from the Mr. Softee truck on the corner and ate it in the wonderful spring sunshine before heading back to work.

Yum.