I find it remarkable that people would care so much about poetry that other people are writing

I think in a lot of cases, the caring came from not being able to get into print if you didn't adhere to a certain standpoint or style.

Now, in this day of zines and teh internets and a world of small printing presses and computers, we can take for granted how easy it can be to get your voice heard outside of your own neighborhood.

Then, not so much, maybe? And your stuff definitely wouldn't ever be taught to anyone, much less a university-level student, because it wasn't canon.

The beats, and the feminists, and the Achebes of the world changed that.

Went out to dinner, discovered any food temp approaching warm makes the entire upper right of my face explode in agony. This is...new. My dinner last night did not do this, my morning coffee did not do this, lunch didn't do this.

I have to wait till Thursday.

I bought a fucking teething ring, because cold= no pain.

So, a current cultural war is, like, Team Aniston v. Team Jolie, right??

Sounds more like a punk-ass chickenshit to me.

It's possible I got testy in the last ten minutes.

This made me laugh really hard.

Also: cargo cults make me laugh. And I took a class in college about the making of the modernist canon, which I really liked, even though I was the non-intellectual in the class. I liked a lot of the stuff that didn't make it into the canon and some of the stuff that did. FTR.

I have been drinking.

I love the idea of cargo cults. I like to think about how much effort it might take to re-word the idea of a cargo cult for modern culture, write a book, and make millions. Hey, it worked for the person who wrote The Secret, right?

There's got to be something someone could do about Apple as a cargo cult, isn't there? I mean, in that case it's true that if you go to the temple at the appointed time, the great god does give you new stuff, but still.

I bought a fucking teething ring, because cold= no pain.

oh poor you! Hey, if you want to send your folks down to tour Fells Point on Thursday I'll have lunch with them!

My old dog Frank isn't doing so well right now. He's got some diarrhea and had been doing okay but now he's not eating and he threw up some water he'd had. He went to the vet today but they didn't have a quick diagnosis. they've done some bloodwork that will come back tomorrow. I just feel so bad for him.

poor sara's mouth and lisa's dog.

ION, I finally got around to cancelling my friendster account.

Yes! I gotta yank friendster too.

Lisah, your poor puppy!

Speaking of cargo cults, you should all read Island of the Sequined Love Nun if you like absurdist humor. So funny. Plus, talking fruit bat.

I hear that he's quite shy in person, and loathe to start arguments

He actually sounds like a guy I was friends with in HS. Who was a hypocritical jerk with poor social skills (and this is me saying that, and shut up). I was good friends with him for a long time because he was also very smart and generous... as long as you didn't push the buttons that made him a hypocritical jerk. But any disagreement about abstract issues was taken as a personal attack. And then dancing around those buttons got to be too much... but yeah, I can easily see that happening.

I find it remarkable that people would care so much about poetry that other people are writing

Er, have you met this thing we call "fandom"? That's the whole thing with schisms. The more subtle the distinction in beliefs, the more violently people will defend them, and the more they'll hate people on the other side. To get philosophical [cha-ching!] the eternal question is whether people are more determined to form tribes, or to divide them.