“Listen. There’s a girl out there who might be running for her life from some gigantic turned-on ape!” “Jack, I know how you feel. I feel the same. But there’s a national energy crisis which demands that we all rise above our private selfish interests.” –Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin (Nicky the Parasite!!!), “King Kong” (1976) Read more

I need a brain cell to go with my other one That’s what comes from decades of having fun One blogwatch too many Just a touch too much My mama told me “You’ve had enough of that stuff”… Sed Contra: Neat excerpt from Beyond Gay, in which he’s baptized. But… where are the permalinks?? Charles Murtaugh: Science fiction children part two, with a promise of part three to come. The Marriage Movement: Criticism of a) the Washington Times and b)... Read more

“Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance. But vital cities are not helpless to combat even the most difficult of problems. They are not passive victims of circumstance, any more than they are the malignant opposite of nature. “Vital cities have marvelous innate abilities for understanding, communicating, contriving and inventing what is required to combat their difficulties. Perhaps the... Read more

“[Nature watching] is quite as easy in the city as in the country; all one has to do is accept Man as a part of Nature.” –Botanist Edgar Anderson, quoted in Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities Read more

JUST NOW, IN AN EMAIL FROM THE RAT: “I always confuse Ron Paul and RuPaul.” Read more

“Richard Lederer’s Student Bloopers” and more of the same. Read more

PHONESPELL.ORG is a fun site where you can plug in various phone numbers and learn what they spell if the numbers are converted to letters as on a standard telephone. Here’re some fun ones (all area codes are 202): D.C. Office of Budget and Planning: 727-6343, or PARODIE Sen. Edward Kennedy’s office: 224-4543, or A-BIG-KID The Embassy of Saudi Arabia: 342-3800, or FIB-3800 The Pleasure Place, an “erotic boutique,” location #1: 333-8570, or FEET-570 location #2: 483-3297, or GUFFAWS Read more

FROM ROTTEN REJECTIONS: Actual rejection letters. Great stuff. (of a book by Harry Crews) “Burn it, son, burn it. Fire is a great refiner.” (of Faulkner’s Sanctuary) “Good God, I can’t publish this. We’d both be in jail.” (of Fitzgerald’s “Thumbs Up”) “I thought it was swell but all the femmes down here said it was horrid. The thumbs, I suppose, were too much for them.” (of The Wind in the Willows) “…the form of the story is most unexpected.”... Read more

POETRY THURSDAY: Stuff I found going through old email. From Sappho. (The poetry, that is, not the email.) with his venom irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down AND it is clear now: neither honey nor the honey-bee is to be mine again AND If you are squeamish don’t prod the beach rubble Read more

“This criminal must be found. Otherwise, these acts will continue!” –Cop, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Ape” Read more