no quarter

Inscrutable sign at Sushi Thai on the beach.

agreement

A pronoun's number is guided by that of its antecedent noun or nouns.

--Chicago Manual of Style.

single moms

we are seeing it

we are seeing the

fabric of this country

fall apart and it's falling apart

because of single moms

children having children

is destroying the

fabric of our country

what we have is moms

raising children in single-parent

households simply breeding

more criminals

--Rick Santorum

let the season begin

Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium today. Marlins won.

ask siri

Real answers from the lady in my pocket:

Me: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Siri: I have no particular insight into the motivations of chickens.

washington outsider

And by the way,

politicians always say that.

But I’m not really

a politician. I guess

I kinda am, because

I was governor for four

years and I’ve run for office.

But my heart is

a conservative businessman.

--Mitt Romney

query on

A very helpful and savvy book on writing from Luke Reynolds. With a foreword by me.

mandates

No, no, I like mandates.

The mandates work.

Let me, let me,

oh, absolutely.

Let me

tell you what kind

of mandates I like,

which is this. If it weren't . . .

Here's my view:

If somebody, if somebody

can afford insurance and

decides not to buy it, and

then they get sick, they

ought to pay their own way,

as opposed to expect the

government to pay their way.

And that's an American

principle. That's a principle

of personal responsibility.

--Mitt Romney

the indiscernible library

Reading Philip K. Dick's essay "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later," in which he mentions a book published by a friend titled Snakes of Hawaii, which may be this. Published, not written. There are no snakes in Hawaii (according to Dick) and no words in the book. My inner Jim Fingal kicked in. I checked that fact. Well, there are, in fact, snakes in Hawaii, at least according to this site. In fact here's a picture of the Island Blind Snake:

Still, that would be a pretty short book since this is the only established species on the islands. What I started out to say, however, was that the book reminded me of a library I have written about briefly in my novel-in-progress. Here's the passage:

When he got home, Wayne went online and updated his blog, which he called In Private and in Publix. He linked to a Borgesian website called The Indiscernible Library which, it turns out, is a collection of books that have only appeared in other books. The books were unwritten, unpublished, unread, and they cannot, of course, be checked out. And then Wayne wrote that he had not written a number of books himself, and he listed three of them: Until Nevermas; Boffo!; and Practical Gastromancy.

I thought I had seen a reference some time in my life about that library, but apparenly I made it up. Or Borges mentioned a similar insitution an dI can't recell where. There is the Library of Unwritten Books, which is actually short summaries and interviews with people about the books they would like to write--a fabilous idea. That might be where I got the notion.

it's stuffy in here

At last I'm a character! Peter Stravlo has put me into his story, "Dufresne." I'm a big gray teddy bear.  Thanks, Peter!

the racket this time

gangs of young blacks bust

into a bank lobby firing 

rounds at the ceiling

they grab purses watches wallets

off the customers

shoot the place up and

sometimes blow a few people away

then the youth storm 

out into the streets where

they cannot be caught

if you have ever been robbed 

by a black teenage male

you know how unbelievably fleet

of foot they can be

  --Dr. Ron Paul

the gop's reigning intellectual

. . . whose dissertation went unpublished, former Assistant Professor Newt Gingrich, was not granted tenure by West Georgia College:

from the Wall Street Journal.

Newt: “I’m not a natural leader. I’m too intellectual; I’m too abstract; I think too much.”

Newt: “I have enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet. And I’m doing it. I am now a famous person. I represent real power.”

Newt:  “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.”

Newt: “A mere forty years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning. No bureaucrat would have invented it, and that’s what freedom is all about.”

(yes, he did say that, at the GOP Convention in 1996)

 Paul Krugman's estimate? Newt is “a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.”

and he loves me for it

No teleprompters

no written speeches

the opportunity to see

what’s in here,

and what’s up here,

and what’s burning

down

here

And I get a kick,

I get a kick out of the media

they say, “Oh look, he said this,

and it might mean this.

Oh, wow, he’s really–

he’s really out there.

You’ve got to worry about

everything he says.”

No you don’t.

             --Rick Santorum

trees are people too

I was born and raised here. I

love this state. It seems right here.

Trees are the right height. I

Like seeing the lakes. I

love the lakes, the Great Lakes,

but also all the little inland lakes

that dot the parts of Michigan.

I love cars. I dunno, I mean, I

grew up totally in love with cars. I

know the American cars pretty well.

Drive a Mustang. I love cars. I

love American cars, and long

may they rule the world,

let me tell you.

                    --Mitt Romney

the cowboy priest

"Francis Xavier Sullivan left St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers after two years of prayer and study to become a police officer, leaving his mother in tears, her express-lane to heaven now blocked, his father elated, and his uncle Tim Cooney, a New York City cop, proud. When he was a boy, Francis told anyone who asked that he wanted to be a cowboy priest when he grew up, riding the range in his Roman collar on his palomino, Archangel, bringing the sacraments to cowpokes and buckaroos around the campfires and bunkhouses." 

Francis X. is a minor character in a novel I'm writing. Today I found out he could have joined the Cowboy Church Network had he followed his dreams.

quink

My cat, my bottle of Quink:

kim bradley

My friend Kim got a rave review for her new story, "Cheating Time," in the Louisville Review: Kim Bradley’s “Cheating Time” deals with a woman named Jackie, who is fresh out of prison, and the relationship she has with her sister Cassie, who makes money by conning people—an act made even more despicable by the fact that one of her trademarks is introducing invasive species to guarantee repeat business. “Cassie diagnosed problems, whether homeowners had them or not, and if they didn’t, she saw to it they acquired one. She set up a greenhouse out back of the house, and nurtured exotic seedlings that had only one goal in life and that was to root deep and kill out native species.” The writing is great, and the dynamic between the sisters works well.

happy valentine's day

Battle Mountain, Nevada, Donald Berinati

florida books

My pal Lynne Barrett won the Gold Medal in this year's Florida Book Awards. Michael Lister is making his book Blood of the Lamb available for free download for a limited time. I'll be joining both Lynne and Michael at the FIT Creative Writing Institute in May. Lynne and I will also be at the Rosemary Beach Foundation Conference for Writers in May. 

willie and friends

    WIllie Nelson's rehearsal tody:

Willie and Bobbie

Kevin, Mickey, and Willie

The band is playing in Fort Lauderdale tonight. Mickey and I spent the day talking about music, books, and writing and visiting Books & Books on Lincoln Road for literature and lunch