“Well, I feel real stupid about this, but…”

“But, what?”

“I got up in the middle of the night for a drink of water, but as I was fumbling around in the dark, I grabbed something called Scour-Gigmania-MusicMaker.com Acid instead.”

“Oh, my.”

“It’s that serious, uh?”

“I’m afraid so. There’s no known antidote.”

“So, how long do I have?”

“The first symptom is a massive inflating of the venture capital bladder.”

“When?”

“About two weeks from now.”

“That sounds painful. Will I still be able to see the Backstreet Boys?”

“If you’re talking about the Pontiac Silverdome date with Destiny’s Child and Krystal, no problem. That’s well before you’ll experience any stock slippage along your NASDAQ intestinal tract.”

“How about The Moody Blues?”

“The Vegas dates during the first week of April should be okay. You probably won’t feel the cash burn syndrome until the beginning of May.”

“Cash burn syndrome? That sounds pretty final.”

“It’s not, but it is a prelude to the eventual breakdown of your lower financial colon, resulting in a general collapse of your interior funding skeleton.”

“That’s not a pretty picture. How long do… do I have?”

“Just over five months.”

“So, I can still make it to U2 in Boston?”

“If you’re going to the June 5th show. The other shows, June 6, 8 and 9 may be a bit of a stretch.”

“Whew! For a moment you really had me worried.”