I’m not going to lie, coming up with a topic for my column was a little tough this week. You know what? It’s all your fault.

There is probably a guide-to-column-writing book that goes something like, “Rule #1: Never antagonize your readers.” I haven’t read that book.

Now many of you write nice comments or tell me personally how much you enjoy my column. Others post cutting criticism or tell me what you wish I had done differently. Probably more than those two groups combined are the people who do not read my column at all.

I am not writing to any of you.

But to readers who post those comments to my column and others (I’m cringing as I recall responses to Stacy Jacobson on Playboy, Abe Rakov on Detroit and Maxwell Hayman on illegal downloading), which make me question Northwestern’s admissions standards, I have to tell you, your idiocy is really making it hard for me to come up with ideas. I just can’t help picturing what kind of ridiculous things you’re going to say about potential columns. I get so annoyed that I give up and move on.

To clarify, I’m not talking about healthy, penetrating criticism, which is awesome and helpful. I’m talking about just plain stupidity. Let’s look at a few of the ideas I had this week and the potential comments that made me toss them out.

_Ѣ Embarrassingly enough, I attended the only football game of my Northwestern career Saturday. I considered writing about school spirit and my lack thereof, and how it ended up feeling nice to be part of the NU community in that way. “Maybe if you had attended more sporting events, you wouldn’t be so bitter. You disgust me.” Mmm, next.

_Ѣ This weekend I was both grossed out and cracked up by the ways in which a couple of guys hit on me in bars. I thought about writing a cute, snarky piece about that scene. “Thanks for writing this column just to tell the world that you got hit on. You disgust me.”

_Ѣ Maybe something about food – how I love cooking but rarely do it because I hate washing dishes, how watching “Ratatouille” last week inspired me to try a new recipe, etc. “Some people in the world don’t even have food. You disgust me.”

_Ѣ My boyfriend is studying this semester in Paris and has had class cancelled three times because of strikes. I considered writing about how this kind of thing never happens in America. Why are students here so apathetic compared to both our parents’ generation and our European peers? “If you’re so concerned about people being apathetic, why don’t you do something about it instead of sitting on your ass writing all day? You disgust me.” Actually … kind of a good point.

_Ѣ I really like puppies. They are so cute. “This reeks of overgeneralization and is irresponsible journalism. You disgust me.”

I just can’t wait to see what you’ll have to say about this one.

Medill senior Anna Maltby can be reached [email protected].