We're late, we're late, for a very important date

My editor at Choice posted a brief editorial about academics (and librarians) and their excuses for submitting late reviews.  Ssssh! Don't tell the students that we do this too. 

Part of my job at Modern Philology involved tracking down wayward reviewers and requesting that they mend the errors of their ways.  (If you've never been on the operational side of a journal, you might be amazed at just how many review copies silently vanish into the depths of the would-be reviewers' bookshelves.)   The most startling excuse involved a house fire...