I Don't Know If It's Just Me ...

... or if it's one of those things like the menstrual cycles of women who live around each other synchronizing.

When I'm in an op-ed writing slump -- not necessarily writer's block, but a cycle where not that much seems interesting and I don't feel like I'm finding the most important things to say -- it almost always looks to me like that's going around.

That is, when I start hitting the many, many commentary sites I cover for Rational Review News Digest each day, the opinion columns at those sites seem to not be as good as usual, as if those writers are also bored and not doing their best work.

It could be that my own boredom / decreased facility with words is causing me to find their stuff boring and not as well written as usual.

Or it could be that there's just not really a hot news cycle at the moment and that the lack of engaging things to write about is affecting them.

Or maybe we're just all in a slump for some reason (perhaps the Muses are on strike?).

Or something else. But this  last couple of weeks isn't the first time I've noticed it.