I'm going to Popcorn's orange house for New Year's Eve! Hurray!

XXXXOO

My most hated criticism scribbled by English teachers on junior high school essay assignments: "Too wordy." Not that the criticism was inaccurate. It seems I just don't like the word, "wordy." It makes me think, "Of course it's wordy, it's language!" I'll take verbose any day.

Merry Solstice, suckers.

Mary lent me a nice children's book called, Morning, Noon, and Night: Poems To Fill Your Day selected by Sharon Taberski and illustrated by Nancy Doniger (c) 1996 Mondo Publishing . Here are some of the poems I like in this collection.


Lunchbox


They always

End up

Fighting --


The soft

Square

Sandwich,


The round

Heavy

Apple.

- by Valerie Worth


Pencils

Every word in your
pencil
is fearless Ready to walk
the blue tightrope lines
Ready
to teeter and smile
down Ready to come right out
and show you
thinking!

- by Barbara Juster Esbensen

Cat Kisses

Sandpaper kisses
on a cheek or a chin --
that is the way
for a day to begin!

Sandpaper kisses --
a cuddle, a purr.
I have an alarm clock
that's covered with fur.

- by Bobbi Katz

Shrinkie the Bear says,

Just what you needed: Another goddamn opportunity to grow.

Dear Inkblot,

You were right. Sorry I got mad earlier. That brand new book with the pristine cover did deserve to get clawed. You're always right and should be worshipped.

Me

Back when Fergie-Dog lived with me, she had the strange habit of sleeping with her eyes wide open. She looked pretty dead when she did this. Usually when I came home from work, my key in the lock would wake her up. On rare occasions when I came home, she would fail to wake up. I would gasp thinking she was dead and rush over to her. At that point she would wake up surprised. For some reason it took several instances of this happening before I learned not to assume she was dead. Now it's kind of a fond memory, but, damn, that takes a lot out of you.

After harboring guilt feelings for years about not being a member of the ACLU, I finally joined the other day. I didn't realize membership is only $20. That's fifteen bucks cheaper than the Sierra Club, if memory serves.

My great grampy J.H. Ryckman was one of the co-founders of the Southern California ACLU along with Upton Sinclair. According to my grandma, J.H. was born into indentured servitude and escaped. Can't verify this though. The story is that his ma fled the Irish Potato famine and went into indentured servitude in the U.S., so I guess it's possible he was born into it. Nevertheless, the guy had a feeling or two about civil liberties. A toast to you, James Harvey! I'm hanging onto your very red, Socialist Party card. I suck compared to you.

Couldn't you look at pictures of mudmen all day long?

Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 1
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 2
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 3
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 4
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 5
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 6
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 7
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 8
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 9
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 10
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 11
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 12
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 13
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 14
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 15
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 16
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 17
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 18
Asaro Mudmen of New Guinea Link 19

"I would say pure yes."
-kid being interviewed on NPR

Didn't even have to use my A.K.

Formerly crabby patrons left the Biomed library smiling and saying, "Mun Mun, you're the best." Professor TooBusy helped Mun Mun figure out a better theoretical framework for her social science methodology paper. Fancy coffee drinks were consumed. Shoes felt comfortable. Decent parking spaces were found. Saw a kid riding a unicycle down Mississippi Ave. and came home to a message from special, new friend T.K. It was a good day.