A few days ago, while waiting for a special-order double cheeseburger at the McDonald's drive-thru, a young man in the car in back of me screeched around me and left the parking lot in a rage. Made an illegal left turn to boot.

Guess he didn't want to wait, I thought. (I believe at the time I was singing along with Warren Zevon to Werewolves of London on the radio. Which reminds me, I need to do a celebration on him.)

Today, I received an email from big-booty@blackplanet.com who said, and I quote verbatim: "you need to put celebrations on this web site. not what people do every morning. this web-page that you'all have built is not a very or even goood one."

Obviously, big-booty@blackplanet.com will not be purchasing my upcoming book.

Both dramas bring to mind that wonderful Ricky Nelson song, Garden Party, with the classic observation, "You can't please everyone so you have to please yourself."

Coincidentally, today I found that a 2003 study by Northwestern University showed that young adults, between 18 to 30 years old, who are extremely impatient or hostile are 84% more likely to get high blood pressure than laid-back young adults. According to the NY Times (9/04) Workplace stress costs the U.S. over $300 billion yearly in health care.

"And that, in turn, raises their risk for heart problems, kidney disease, and stroke," said health reporter Jim Ritter.

So my friends, the next time you're tempted to burn rubber or write a grammatically incorrect email to a mild-mannered website creator, take my advice: Chill out and have a chocolate chip cookie instead.

Stressed? I'd rather have some desserts.