Specially designed for you non-confrontational types

The ultra-cool site Lifehacker posted about an Internet service that lets you call in sick ahead of time. Call-in-Sick lets you record a voice mail, say right before you head out to the Sports Column on Thursday, to tell your boss you won't be at work on Friday, and then schedule a time for the service to call the boss and leave the message.

Somehow, planning ahead to call in sick seems like cheating. Besides, I always wanted to be on the stage ...