intellects vast & cool & unsympathetic
Yes, I managed to paint myself green (Statue of Liberty) without permanently soiling the bathroom. Fortunately my bedsheets were green already. Then I came home and dreamed about walking down Linn Street and seeing a nail fall from the sky. It landed in the middle of the road, a few feet from me.
"Are you all right?" asked a passing cop on horseback.
"Fine," I said.
"Okay," said the cop, "because that nail is contaminated. I'm sure you're out of danger, though."
"All right," I said, though I didn't entirely believe his reassurance. Walking home, I remembered the Martians... of course, it's the War of the Worlds, the Martians are bombarding Earth with anthrax-contaminated items... and I thought it could never happen here...
This "A Nation Challenged" headline needs to stop. Euphemisms have eviscerated the word "challenged" of any meaning; now I think of "developmentally challenged" or "vertically challenged" or whatever.
Whiting Awards are out. Most of these I don't know except for Akhil Sharma, who got notoriety for the incest thing, and Matthew Klam, who is clearly not averse to self-promotion.
