Overheard from three 14-year-old boys with skateboards:

"If someone wants to hit you with a fish, why don't they just hit you with a fish?"

"Maybe they don't have a fish."

You could have knocked me over with a fish when Kattywompus Press (welcome to the wompus!) told me that they want to publish my chapbook Burrowing Song.  It's mostly prose poems, but generally not mainstream.  KP says it is in the queue and should appear by January 2013.  So, thank you Kattywompus!  Now I'll have a fish.

News from the Giant Pumpkin

This fine specimen is already 45" (113cm ) tall, after only one month of growth..  She is the baby of Sergio, gardener and keeps-it-all-running guy at the north campus of Napa Valley College in St. Helena, California.  She started with a seed from last year's winner, a pumpkin weighing in at 1800+ lbs.  Sergio keeps her protected from the sun so she will not scar or split.  He also pinches off all the pretender pumpkins who might sap the plant's energies.  At 3-4 days since being a blossom, these are already 6" across.

The news, however, is that my chapbook of  (mostly) prose poems, Burrowing Song, has been accepted for publication by Sammy Greenberg of Kattywompus Press.  I am so delighted to have a manuscript with this fine independent publisher.  The book itself may be out by the beginning of 2013.  As Sammy says, "Welcome to the wompus!" 

Quote of the Week: Wealth in the U.S.

Grill cook at the Pie 'n' Burger in Pasadena, California
 This guy's burgers are classic:  crunchy, soft and chewy.  He makes about five a minute when things are busy, also grilling onions and keeping the fries coming.  When orders slow down, he lines up the buns, slathers them with dressing, and positions the chunk of iceberg lettuce, ready for the next wave.  If that isn't a valuable job, I don't know what is.

"You will be poor in the only real sense of the word, sir, in that you will not be rich. You will have a little after you've sold everything, but in a country where every man is what he has, he who has very little is nobody very much.  There's no such thing as genteel poverty here, sir."
                                                                        --Elaine May, "A New Leaf"

Curious

Sure, it gets me into trouble, but being curious is so much more interested, and interesting.

Partial solar eclipse!

We happened to be in the path of the partial (and annular) solar eclipse.  I am very pleased with this photo, because I achieved it with  my point & shoot, no tripod, and my filtering goggles held up over the lens.  Do you have any idea of how difficult it is to aim a camera when you can't hold it up and look at your subject??

Le flâneur :: The amazing disappearing cat heinie

This fine ginger fellow was proceeding along bd. Edgar Quinet.  He disdained my advances, and stationed himself in the doorway of the café Liberté.  He is by far the best thing about the place, which is a disgrace to the patrimoine.

Ice crystals at 37 K

For some reason, I am fascinated by the terms used to describe dangerous cold, especially cold made more intense by wind-chill.  Dire cold, bitter cold, these, well, freeze me in my tracks.  I had wondered whether there were actual levels for the words:  'dire' cold from -40 F to -50 F, or something like that.  A person exposed unprotected to these temperatures falls unconscious in seconds, perishes in minutes.  I've been trying to write poems about this that do more than say, it's cold and scary.  So far, I'm not satisfied.