On a More Positive Note

Carole made apple crisp & I made penne ala vodka for dinner tonight & we’re sitting around listening to an old Van Morrison CD with four dogs — our three & a holiday visitor — in front of a roaring fire in the wood stove. The dogs are already snoring & we’re none of us [...]

Improving the Past

One of my favorite bloggers, Fred Clark, who writes Slacktivist, has this to say about the current urge to surge in Iraq:
[I was] searching for the word “past” in these lists of wise clichés, I found many variations of this: “Sanity: What we get when we quit hoping for a better past.” That, I think, [...]

NewsTrust

I heard about NewsTrust from a mention on Boing Boing, so it’s not like it has been a secret or anything. The site, which uses the “social software” model, categorizes & rates news stories from many sources in an attractive & easy-to-use format. I also like the fact that no one is allowed to register [...]

Masters of War

Former president Gerald Ford is dead, they say. He was a nice guy, they say. Me, I’m waiting to see the last of Rumsfeld, Kissinger, & Cheney, all of whom the nice guy helped launch into American politics. In the memorable words of Bob Dylan, “I’ll stand over your graves ’til I’m sure that you’re [...]

E-Ratio

E-Ratio 8, a web magazine that brings the elegance of letterpress printing into a web format is now online. I have begun reading this issue — first one I’ve been aware of — & while the work seems a little on the self-conscious side, I’m going to withhold further judgment until I’ve had a chance [...]

James Brown 1933 - 2006

When I first heard James Brown on the radio when I was in junior high school, he did not, let us say, speak to my sensibilities. The fault was entirely mine, or at least the fault of my experience growing up white in working class Southern California suburbia. I was listening to the Beatles & [...]

Poets on Poetry Readings

Dale Hobson of North Country Public Radio interviewed me & several other North County poets on the subject of giving poetry readings. I haven’t actually given a reading in quite a while — the whole ritual is vaguely embarrassing — but I didn’t admit to that. You can download or stream it here.

Baking

Carole is at a holiday party with her girlfriends tonight & while they would have allowed me to be an honorary girl for purposes of the party, I decided to stay home & catch up on work. Except that instead of working on the syllabus for that new course I’m teaching next semester, I’m baking [...]

Saigon Redux

This is what McNamara heard when he went to Saigon for LBJ. Didn’t these sons-of-bitches live through Vietnam? Harkins & then Westmorland always wanted a “surge” in troops. It was what they did. A few more thousand would definitely do the trick. This time. The president is about to escalate himself into a full-scale maelstrom. [...]