You know it’s time to quit smoking when… you try to open a plane door MID-FLIGHT so that you can light up your cig: Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane. She was seen on the Cathay Pacific plane walking towards a door with an … Read More

This week on the Bat Segundo show–Jennifer Weiner: Condition of Mr. Segundo: Concerned with time and elusive apocalypses. Subjects Discussed: Mysteries, Susan Isaacs, Zoe Heller, the specific details of murder, inexplicable shame and guilt among the Marina crowd, diapers vs. cloth, whether Matt Lauer should be peed on, the inversion of tough-guy dialogue, first-person voice, observational novels, chicklit, dismissive husbands, the “Free to Be … Read More

This seems like it should be a joke, but it’s not

That’s right. Now your dog can take a crap in your house with impunity, because there’s… doggy litter

A couple of reminders: 1) Tomorrow (November 18th) is the last day you can submit your entry to the Night Train Yates Competition. It’s only $10 an entry and you get an issue of the journal as an added bonus. 2)My time as the guest editor at the luscious SmokeLong Quarterly is winding down but there are still a few spots open for the … Read More

The sun is shining for the first time in days and the light is perfect, clear. Makes me wish I was a photographer. Makes me wish my hands were not so shaky, so eager to gather up the images, quickly, greedily. Here is today: We have a great deal of moss here and I love it. No matter if the leaves have gone and … Read More

For your reading pleasure today, I offer you: New Again, by the amazing Pia Z. Ehrhardt

This is a photo of the moon a few nights ago from my back window. The tall pines nearly blot it out. Tonight is the full moon–the beaver moon: This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the … Read More

A couple of important items of writerly note: 1) If you are in the Wantagh, NY area tomorrow night, you will want to go hear Ellen Meister speak about and read from her forthcoming debut novel, Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Ellen read and I can tell you it is a real treat. So don’t miss it. … Read More

Farewell to a Fellow Reader

Yesterday was the memorial service for Allen’s grandmother, Evelyn. She was 97 when she died (just over two weeks ago). Evelyn was a life-long lover of reading and a woman with a non-ending thirst for knowledge. The last time she stayed with us, a year ago, she was reading a book by Charles Kuralt on his travels around the country. She was captivated by … Read More Farewell to a Fellow Reader

Is Pat Robertson out of his mind? Why, yes, it seems that he is–Evangelist says voters reject God: “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,” Mr Robertson said on The 700 Club.

here it comes

The cold is here. Or moving in. Seeping. I’ve been waiting for it. Anticipating it. And now, today, I am legitimately cold. My right hand is shriveling into a claw and yet I am resisting turning up the heat because I don’t want to use more oil than necessary so that those motherfuckers can’t hold our use of oil against us and drill in … Read More here it comes

Paper Street Press has a redesigned web site (and it looks like their Fall 2005 issue–here’re some samples from the journal–is available for order). The site looks gorgeous. Go on and check it out.