WhimsyLand

I owe it to CDY for mentioning Jonathan's use of the Amazon Concordance feature.  What's interesting is that books of quite different aesthetics don't look all that different when you look at the ranked concordance.  Compare the concordance, for example, of MJB's Louise in Love with that of CDY's Second Person.  Lots of nice concrete Anglo-Saxon words.  BTW, I am totally stealing CDY's Palatino addiction.

On the topic of Poetry Words, Claudia once said that "shard" was the new "butterfly", and Hannah thinks that "cicadas" may be the new "shards". Of course, those are just the nouns.  For verbs, I'd nominate "limn" and for adjectives "ineluctable", which has the dual disadvantage of being overused and latinate. Speaking of cicadas, THEY'RE BACK!!! (mwah-ha-ha), after a 17 year hiatus.  Not to worry, though, there are plenty of recipes for the critters.

Kasey and Joshua are reviewing films again, which always strikes me as using intellectual howitzers on (mainly) artistic small fry.  On the other hand, the cultural commentary is always interesting, as are the fresh takes on films (new and old).  On the 3d hand, I have been visiting review sites (e.g., Epinions, et al.) to hear what people say about all those informercial products I see on my morning treadmill, so I should talk.  It turns out, not surprisingly, that the various real estate programs end up trying to sell you thousands of dollars of seminars and information that you could get for free using Google.  The Magic Bullet isn't exactly useless, but there are cheaper ways to make guacamole.  Hip Hop Abs is apparently as effective as Yoga Bootie Ballet, but the infomercials that I love in this category are the ones in which you exercise without actually moving.   Greer Childers proposes deep breathing, and then there are the belts that shock your stomach muscles into contraction.  My personal favorite is the creepy Klee Irwin who tells you that, if you only cleanse your colon, you will defy death and become rich.  What's really amazing about these companies is that they get sued by the FTC, pay millions in fines, are staffed and run by a host of felons, and still, every morning, there they are. 

I've got a new Poetry, as you know.  Also a new Colorado Review arrived.  I might talk about them tomorrow.  Or, I may perform a Mega Tea Ceremony on this house to prepare for Junie's arrival tomorrow afternoon.  That involves all the stuff that guys never actually get around to unless company is imminent, such as vacuuming, rug-cleaning, furniture de-fur-ification, refrigerator-detoxifying, bed making, and bathroom-scrubbing.  See you tomorrow.  Maybe.