(FORTUNE Small Business) – One of the toughest things in business journalism is taking potentially dull finance topics and turning them into compelling and entertaining stories. Anyone can write about such things as--forgive the cliche--best management practices. But few people can execute such pieces without making the reader's hair hurt. I won't pretend that we meet that lofty standard with every story we produce, but I'm confident we have one of the best batting averages out there. One reason is that we have a great crew of talented staff and freelance journalists on hand. But it also helps that we're able to draw from Time Inc.'s impressive stable of writers. Case in point:

Peter Carbonara, the author of our cover story, "Are You Paid Enough?" How good is he? I asked him to send me a bio, and it was so entertaining that I'm reproducing his memo right here. It tells you more about him than I ever could (including a habit of referring to himself in the third person). Here is Peter's take on, well, himself:

"Peter Carbonara has been a senior writer at Money magazine and a contributor to FSB since November 1998. You should be so lucky. Success, however, has not turned his head, and he still puts his pants on one leg at a time. In a highly erratic (not to say aimless) career in what is sometimes referred to as 'the media,' he has covered the bond market for Dow Jones, politics for PBS' Frontline television series, business for Fast Company and Inc. magazines, and Elvis Costello for Spin. Somewhere in there he spent several years trying unsuccessfully to say something nice about attorneys as a reporter for The American Lawyer. He also preyed on human misery as a producer for Court TV. His wife, Betsy, is a veterinarian and former magazine editor. They have one child, Nicholas, the smartest, cutest 2c-year-old in northern New Jersey by a long way. Carbonara is 38 and a 1983 graduate of Columbia University. Spare time, such as he has, is devoted to trying to learn Django Reinhardt's guitar solo on the tune 'Minor Swing.' He enjoys Blue's Clues, and his favorite Muppet is Grover."

There you have it, folks. I can't say that "Are You Paid Enough?" is quite as entertaining, but I can't think of a better guy to tackle the subject.

HANK GILMAN Managing Editor