Super Computer vs. Bee

The bee wins every time.

The daffodils along Harford Road are incredible.
The cherry blossoms on 39th are incredible.
The tulips in my neighbor's yard are incredible.

Thank you, bee.

A birthday, a good one, and stories

I had a lovely birthday this year. I saw my favorite band. I ate good food. I heard from friends. I feel lucky and loved.

Here is Kill Author and my two stories, "Groundswell" and "An Insurrection." The editors are anonymous at that journal and I really like that idea.

I've been reading like wild lately, too. And Katie F. and I collected tree bark from one of Catonsville's oldest trees that was felled. And then

Mental Protuberance

A writing post and thanks

David McLendon is one of the most generous, big-hearted editors I've come across. He posted my story, "Scouts," to Unsaid's website. Please read it here. Brian Kubarycz, Factotum, (as stated on Unsaid's masthead)is also a positive force.

This leads me to my second item. "Contuse" was accepted by Folio (American University) after their managing editor solicited me-- after she read "Scouts." Big thanks to them and to Unsaid, and to the Baltimore people that heard a rough draft of the story when I read it at the 510.

Also-- I was asked to contribute to The Rotating History Project's spring show, The Same River Twice. The piece had to relate to the Jones Falls River in some way. I enjoyed researching the river and its history. I settled on creating a fake scientific paper based on real facts. It's all about clam guts, etc. The piece will be published in a hard-bound book, along with other writers and visual artists, as part of Baltimore's Green Week. I look forward to seeing the show and also hearing about how other people relate to the urban river.
The American woodcock is a chunky bird with a long, flexible, sensitive bill. It also used to live on the banks of the Falls.

An Electric Eye Fell Into My Lap

How exciting! My mother-in-law's neighbor was getting rid of his 8 mm camera. He wanted to know if she could use it. She said yes and gave it to me. I can't wait to try to figure it out.

THE GREAT ENERGY SUCK!

THE GREAT WATER SUCK!

AN EXAMPLE OF MAN'S ARROGANCE (AND IGNORANCE AND BRILLIANCE)!

LAS VEGAS!

So, I'm going there.

To renew my vows.

We will rent a car and drive deep into the Valley of Fire, into Red Rock Canyon, beyond the Mars rocks, into Utah, into mountains and ancient marine protein, to call our marriage into being once again, to say to something big, something like, like,

HEY! We have love here!

Apamin-sensitive K+ channels mediate an endotheliumdependent hyperpolarization in rabbit mesenteric arteries

In other words, I did not contribute to this season's NPR pledge drive. I was asked, repeatedly, to imagine a world without NPR-- a world where the government did not fund public radio. I was asked to give money so it wouldn't matter if the GOP made those cuts.

I decided to take NPR up on that-- to imagine a world without it. I will not turn it on. Not in the morning while I have coffee. Not on the drive to work. Not on the drive home or while I chop seasonally appropriate vegetables. I will not listen to hosts murder phrases, like "Big Fat" Tuesday instead of Big "Fat Tuesday." The pause is slight but very meaningful. Padgett Powell might agree with me.

He also happens to like buffalo:

"I like them because they seem gently wild, as opposed to violently wild, and they have the huge rump-like hump, the giant head, the eyeball the size of a billiard ball. What is not to like? We killed them all."

The man also knows his dogs.