From whiskey river: The Midnight Club The gifted have told us for years that they want to be loved For what they are, that they, in whatever fullness is theirs, Are perishable in twilight, just like us. So they work all night In rooms that are cold and webbed with the moon’s light; Sometimes, during [...]

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It won’t come as news to anybody that blogs — all the “citizen journalist” talk notwithstanding — aren’t where you typically find news. They’re where you find feelings: reactions to news, sure, but also just general reactions to family and work situations, reactions to human behavior, reactions of self-approval and -disillusion, and so on. Somebody [...]

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Back from a three-day beach weekend with spotty Interwebs access… On Saturday — scattered amongst dog-walking, sightseeing, storm-dodging, and various other activities — The TV Network Whose Name I Cannot Type offered some sort of monsters-of-the-deep marathon: maybe six or eight films about giant sharks, reptiles, squid, etc., threatening the lives and livelihoods of people [...]

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[Above, the trailer for the short film Lost and Found, an adaptation of the children's book of the same name by Oliver Jeffers. For stills from the movie, visit the Cartoon Brew link above, and STUDIO aka.] From whiskey river: Recipe for an Ocean in the Absence of the Sea You have the ingredients on [...]

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I don’t know these people, but I bet they had one hell of a reception. Fun (and surprisingly moving)!

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I hope anyone reading this, or any of the other posts here, knows how dearly and sincerely I long for your approval as a reader; I want you to like my writing, and — just as importantly — I’ll never rarely ask for evidence of any of that. (I’ll just want you to keep coming [...]

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I first read about this on Twitter last week, via Travis Erwin: the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week, sponsored by Amy Riley of the My Friend Amy blog. Among other details at the site are these raisons d’etre: WHAT A week where we come together, celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers [...]

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…just now encountered, although I myself can’t use it this exact moment. Permission granted to do with as you will. Definition supplied free of charge: fumor (fyoo’-mor), n. A rotten mood; a silent stewing of one’s psyche in frustrating but unalterable circumstances. E.g., Dealing with the idiots in her bridge club always put Madge in [...]

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This week, a little something different: Usually, I start my Friday post by pulling something at random from the last seven days’ selections at whiskey river. Then I go on to include a handful of poems, quotations, film clips, and/or songs to which the whiskey river snippet led me (by whatever inscrutable chain of thoughts). [...]

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Check out this TED video, of lexicographer Erin McKean (note the “View Subtitles” button — an option I wish were available everywhere, for obvious reasons): Cool, huh? Especially given that two years later, her new online super-duper improved version of the dictionary concept is actually online now. It’s called WordNik, and it’s very interesting. I [...]

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