I have this co-worker. Her name is Marilyn. While she is many things, she is primarily a name dropper. She drops names, always. "I knew Bill Clinton when I lived in Arkansas." She likes to refer to Al Gore as "the Senator." Marilyn loves to talk about the days when she worked on The Senator's presidential campaign in 1988.

Marilyn likes to talk. She kind of sounds like that character on Will and Grace, Karen, Grace's assistant/friend. Usually once a day she'll be sitting behind her computer and do one of two things.

The first: she'll start giggling at something funny a friend e-mailed her. It's the kind of thing where you feel obligated to ask what is funny, knowing whatever she's laughing at will not be funny. "Oh honey, listen to this." She'll read a joke from her e-mail. It's not funny, mostly because she's the one telling the joke. I smile, a forced laugh is emitted. Several more jokes are read. I don't laugh at these. One courtesy laugh is my limit for her e-mail story telling jokes.

The second: "Oh honey, come look at this." Me, "Oh, what's that you're looking at?" Marilyn: "Oh honey, come here. You've got to see this." I know she's on CNN or something I could easily view on my own computer, but she insists I walk to her desk and look at whatever mortifying piece of news is on the screen. Usually, some kind of video describing the tragic ending to the life of an extremely old zoo animal, or how some species of rare bird is nearing extinction. Marilyn: "It's just so sad," she says. Me: "Yeah, I mean, that hippo had a really long life, though."

Dino's closed again all week. God willing, $1.05 hot dogs will be had next week.