If you aren't sure, you can find out what kind of creature you are. Are you an ethereal Luna Moth, a wise Tapir, a social Sea Otter, or something else entirely? forceofnaturepress.com/games

The name Piggy reminded of Lord of the Flies. "Introduced as a plump, bespectacled boy, Piggy represents logic and civilization throughout the novel. He discovers the conch shell that becomes a symbol of order and democratic process on the island."

My review of Trisha Ready's first book, Nobuko, was published in this week's issue of The Stranger. Her book uses a sequence for a short form that reminds me of the OULIPO's use of form/constraint (Calvino's formula for If on a winter’s night a traveler)... www.thestranger.com/books/2025/1...

Walking across a bridge near the Green River and saw this sign: Trap. What do you think they were trying to tell me?

Book to review for The Raven Chronicles. Future X, a novel by Georg Koszulinski.

I’ve been slowly making my through the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry during coffee breaks. Today I read, “After [Frank] O’Hara‘s death ( he was hit by a doom buggy on Fire Island )”… if you gotta go, that seems like a way to go.

He felt the sadness of riding a tandem bike alone.

The air smells like jam.

You can now, at last, pre-order CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY directly from Princeton UP. It's at the printer and is likely to arrive in September, though the official pub date is October 21. Can also preview TOC and intro at this link press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

“Chatbot ‘writing’ has a bland, regurgitated quality…. No chatbot could ever have said that April was the cruelest month or that a fog comes on little cat feet (though they might now, because one of their chief skills is plagiarism).” — @around.com

A walk yeaterday to Martin Creek Bridge on the Snoqualmie Lake Trail in the Middle Fork. It was 90 degrees and then drizzling this morning.

@nicholsonbaker.bsky.social converted me long ago to the em dash comma and the em dash semicolon combo. I'm glad ChatGPT is bringing back the em dash. But we should revive true, hairy Victorian punctuation.

R.I.P., Alice Notley. bigother.com/2025/05/20/r...

Fantagraphics Bookstore observes Seattle Indie Bookstore Day on April 26 with periodic “Speed Readings” from SPREAD contributors including Stacey Levine, Willie Smith, Cristie Coffing, Hamish Todd, Matt Briggs, Eric Acosta, L.E. Cornelison, David Post, and more. www.seattlebookstoreday.com

Something escaped from "inside" the watermelon. The Alien is real.

Garielle Lutz (author of Future Tense books, Partial List of People to Bleach and Assisted Living) is featured in The Nation. An amazing and moving profile.

“Gulf of America” is the name of a phenomenon where reference material, encyclopedias, maps, and indexes bend away from their subject to support the edict of the authoritarian. Hurricanes are directed by Sharpies, historic names become bowdlerized, and the nuance of gender becomes castrated.

Deleted google maps and its “gulf of america” bs.

This offering of food on the Interurban Trail in Auburn sums up my 2024. Taken in July.

I think because of spellcheck, I confused an editor at a tech company when I asked which dictionary do we use? I wanted to have the paper edition. I look up words all of the time, and often get distracted by words that are new to me.

I really like spellcheck and the ability to click a word to get its definition. This is very useful to me. I wrote by hand, and when I can't spell a word I just scribble in the wordshape. When typing, I can always find the right word or commit to a made up word.

If this practice enforces eternal love, when your eternal love ends, do you return to the lock to cut it free?

New York Journal of Books posted my review of Susanne Clarke’s wintertime booklet, The Wood at Midwinter. Her book had me thining about fantasy and anthropomorphism. #books #bookreviews www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/...

While walking my dog at dusk, I discovered the discarded remains of 6.2 million dollars.

I walked on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail from Carnation to Fall City yesterday.

I just hit my exceedingly large health plan deductible. Now, I’m beginning to think: What major medical procedures can I get done in the next month before it all starts over again?

PSA. Did you know you can buy the latest issue of Exacting Clam as an ebook at @asterismbooks.bsky.social? asterismbooks.com/product/exac...

I am always alarmed when the Face ID on my phone doesn't recognize me. What happend to me? What have I become?

I hope Doug Nufer never stops writing

I talked to a friend who vanished from social media before the Pandemic. He almost died from non-COVID causes and while dying wrote a real time memior of his death that was 300k words. He lived. He says the work is unreadable, but turned it into an interactive data science project.