Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim’rous beastie, O, what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi’ bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee, Wi’ murd’ring pattle! I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion Has broken Nature’s social union, An’ justifies that ill opinion, Which makes thee startle, At me, [...]

I don’t care if it is only two words, don’t touch them.

Holy Barackshit! This has to be one of the most bizarre concepts I’ve ever seen… Cracked’s 5 Insane Barack Obama Comic Books You Won’t Believe Are Real. A comic book about Barack Obama?!? Is casting Barack as a comic book superhero the stupidest way you’ve seen yet to glorify this complete doofus of a president?

They say Thursday is the most productive day of the week, but I don’t see how. After the requisite morning news roundup I started reading poetry, which is a superb way to cleanse the mental palate. Dylan Thomas just suffered through another dead birthday, so I started there… and happened upon an old friend, Charles [...]

I finally finished Sharon Kay Penman’s When Christ and His Saints Slept. It’s a large, complex book, this first of the Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy and covers the years from 1135 to 1154. Luckily Penman made both the characters and story quite accessible to the reader. From the author’s website: In When [...]

Archy the cockroach, once a ‘vers libre bard’ and his feline friend Mehitabel, who claims to be a reincarnation of Cleopatra, were unlikely childhood friends of mine. Mrs. Strauss* made our introductions and would even recite their exploits if the mood took her. So when I ran across the books by Don Marquis at Amazon [...]

Owing to Patti’s generosity I’m currently reading Exodus by Leon Uris. Exodus by American novelist Leon Uris is about the founding of the State of Israel. Published in 1958, it is based on the name of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus. In 1956, Uris covered the Arab-Israeli fighting as a war correspondent. Two years later, [...]

I finished Velociman’s book yesterday. It comes off as vaguely autobiographical, so I’d love to see an author Q&A sometime in the near future. Here’s my take… Often crude and frequently funny, A Trip of Goats is about the human condition, in all its humble glory and pathetic excess, seen through the eyes of an [...]