I had a terrifyingly vivid dream last night. In it., I was at the Ziff-Davis HQ in Manhattan, watching on closed-circuit TV as the CEO announced that the company was merging with IDG. Both he and IDG chairman Pat McGovern were flop-sweating, talking about shareholder value, synergy, yadda yadda yadda, obviously well aware that none of it was going over very well with anyone.

Then, I found myself at a backyard barbeque at my boss's house with the rest of the staff, discussing the announcement and reading over the merger plans, when we found that they were changing the name of our magazine to Retail Info Systems News and taking it weekly.

It was all too real. Only toward the end did I become conscious that it was a dream–and mostly because I found myself explaining to my boss's son who Alien Ant Farm was.