Today's topics:

Beware of [the] Don Congdon Agency!!!

"I wrote an article for a national (but new and small) mag about two years ago. The piece was accepted, I had a contract and after a year-and-a-half of excuses, I finally got paid.

The article was for "the next issue" which took until this month to come out. During my discourse with the publisher/editor to try to see payment, I mentioned that I had at hand another piece he might be interested in. Send it over he said. Mainly I was just trying to smooth talk to get money for the original piece. That was a year ago, maybe a little less. That was the end of it. I got paid on the first article and decided to stay away. Now, after a year, I get contributor's copies and the piece I sent the publisher has been published-- without my byline, without my permission, without a contract, and in the letters forum of the mag the publisher mentions his "staff" wrote it. This is MY story. What legal ramifications do I have?"

Do you have to be thin to get a good job in New York?

"While searching online for a men?s magazine article I wrote a few years ago, I came across another similarly titled article on a popular web site. I clicked on it and was shocked to see it was essentially MY article with a few little tweaks thrown in. Should I e-mail the editor?"

"Anybody here use Bacon's magazine list? I was very impressed with what I glimpsed -- how do you get it and what does it cost?"