I was rejected for Modern Love

In many ways, it's kind of sad. In others, not so sad. The Times does like to own the rights to your stuff and some things are entirely too good to give up rights to. So maybe that's how I have to think of it. But they actually sent me a rejection e-mail, which is worthy of quoting since it's so rare!

I'm afraid we've chosen not to use your essay in Modern Love, but we appreciate the opportunity to consider it. The volume of unsolicited submissions we receive prevents us from responding personally to each writer, but please know all essays are read and considered, and in fact we discover most of the essays for the column among these submissions. Thank you for your interest and best of luck.

However, I have a new and much lower-paying assignment for writing up marketing material (which doesn't mean it's low-paying, simply not NYTimes rates.) So all is not lost and there may be a chance I will make my goals of being assigned and completing 25 assignments by December! (Look to the right for 2007's goals.)