There’s a few things I’ve been thinking about lately and another handful of items I’m fired up about, but I can’t possibly share them with readers briefly, so here’s No. 1 on the list.

I’m developing an interviewing strategy for business hiring. I’m calling it the Chilean Mine Test.

The premise is, could you live for 70 days trapped underground with the people at work?

In light of recent events in Chile, it’s a question I think more employers should be asking. Sure, John Doe has superb writing and editing skills and can handle deadline pressure like a professional, but what about the pressure of sweating underground in confined quarters with limited food and water with Suzie in advertising and Frank in circulation?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the folks I work with, but trap us in a room together?

For more than two months?

Other than an eight-hour work day, the only other time we spend trapped in a room together is the company Christmas party.

I’m sure I’d be the first to drive everyone crazy. I do it now. What would change?

The difference is there’s no escape. It’s not like “Survivor” where they can vote me off or one of us can walk away. I have to stay. The only other options are to tie me up and shove me in a closet or kill me. These are options I’m sure my co-workers consider daily, but we have rules here that strictly forbid anyone from binding me or ending my life. At least those were the rules with the former management.

But, would those rules apply if we were stuck under ground? And who enforces them?

I admit, I’m not in touch with all the group’s talents and outside interests, but I’m sure, none of us is a trained emergency medical technician.

We are mostly writers and artists, which means we have little to no scientific skills; no MacGyver here. I’m not even sure any of us were Boy Scouts.

But, as people who work in the news business, we do know how to survive on very little. Some of us could probably turn canned tuna and vitamin supplements into a three-course meal.

I wouldn’t go out on a limb and say we’re a physically-fit bunch, and honestly, who knows the psychological state of each staff member. We’re not like the armed forces where they do those evaluations before hiring. Trap us and we all may go nuts.

We are entertaining. We could spend hours – days – sharing trivia questions, political discussions and songs from the 1960s,’70s and ‘80s.

And we’re good at working in the dark.

Look around your work place. Could you slurp from the same can of peaches or bare your innermost fears, let alone your behind, with those folks for 70 days?