Pulitzer Shmulitzer
Current mood: imprudent
A recent email invitation:
Dear Friends of Poetry and Creativity,
I am pleased to send this along,
From XXXXXX XXXXX, Events Coordinator at XXXXXXXXXX.
asking, "if you would promote to your friends in poetry a special pre-publication reading for Professor Paul Muldoon's event this Monday (Oct. 2) at 7:00pm. I would like to give him a good turnout.
Many thanks for your assistance,
XXXXXXX XXXXXXX, (job title)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (venue), Princeton, NJ 08540
XXX-XXX -XXXX ext. XXX (phone)
i'd sooner sit on
a macaroon
than sit through
a reading
by paul muldoon
Gratuitous Remark Of The Day Current mood: appalled
From YAHOO! News:
Girl dies after getting dental treatment
Wed Sep 27, 7:58 PM ET
A 5-year-old Chicago girl who never awoke from her sedation during a visit to the dentist died Wednesday at Children's Memorial Hospital, a hospital official said.
Kindergartner Diamond Brownridge had been in a coma and on life support since the weekend dentist visit, said Julie Pesch, a spokeswoman for Children's Memorial Hospital.
Family members have said Diamond received a triple dose of sedatives — an oral agent, an intravenous drug and nitrous oxide gas — during Saturday's exam at Little Angel Dental. The girl was having two cavities filled and caps placed on her lower front teeth.
The girl's mother, Ommettress Travis, has said she was asked to leave the room during the half-hour procedure. When she returned, her daughter was lying in the dental chair, not breathing, Travis said.
The girl's dentist, Hicham Riba, was certified to administer anesthesia to patients and his state license was current, said Susan Hofer, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times before the girl died, the 40-year-old Riba said he was traumatized by what happened. "I don't think I will ever go back to a normal life after an experience like this," he said (my italics).
__________________________________________________
Neither will his patient.
Lame Excuse Of The Week Current mood: anti-clericalCategory: News and Politics
FROM YAHOO! NEWS: Pope sorry for reaction to his remarks:
By PIER PAOLO CITO, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 9 minutes ago
Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that did not reflect his personal opinion.________________________________________________
Pope Maledict the First says that he is "deeply sorry" about the reaction, not for having made the statement.
And what in heck does he mean when he says that the text "did not reflect his personal opinion"? Opinions are like a**holes; everybody's got one - alas, even the Pope - but as the leader of the world's one billion plus Roman Catholics, his "personal opinion" is irrelevant when he speaks ex cathedra.
Like the makers Of Hebrew National hot dogs, The Pope has to answer to a higher authority.
What's Good For The Goose
Current mood: fair-minded
Category: News and Politics
One person dies and spinach disappears overnight from America's supermarket shelves. Hundreds of thousands of people die from tobacco products annually, yet cigarettes remain on the market.
People will use this latest E.coli outbreak as an excuse not to eat their vegetables, and spinach will go the way of purslane and dandelion greens.
Federal regulations are needed. Why not adopt the same ones that govern the tobacco industry?
I propose that the government restrict the sale of spinach to those over nineteen, and require packagers to print a warning label on the bag, next to the nutritional information.
Health Crisis Of The DayCurrent mood: jadedCategory: News and Politics
From Yahoo! News:
E. coli outbreak brings spinach warning
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 14, 7:38 PM ET
An outbreak of E. coli in eight states has left at least one person dead (my italics) and 50 others sick, federal health officials said Thursday in warning consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach.
The outbreak of the sometimes deadly bug killed one person in Wisconsin, said Dr. David Acheson, of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The outbreak has sickened people — eight of them seriously — in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah as well.
FDA officials do not know the source of the outbreak, other than it appears to be linked to bagged spinach. "We're advising people not to eat it," Acheson said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's hope this doesn't develop into a national emergency, like West Nile Virus, Bird Flu and Legionnaire's Disease.
Diarrhea is no picnic - but there's no need to panic.
We can avoid eating spinach, sprouts, lettuce, celery, cabbage and other fresh vegetables and stick to safe foods like Oreos, Twinkies and pork rinds. Nobody ever got an E. coli infection from them.
The Evolution Of Language Current mood: amusedCategory: Writing and Poetry
One of my favorite songs - one I often feature on my home page - is the infectious "The Way You Move", by Outkast.
I googled the lyric (to see what words had been bleeped) and was surprised to find the first line transcribed on half a dozen websites as "ready for action, nip it in the butt."
Considering the context, the mondegreen (look it up, folks) makes perfect sense.
Much Ado About Nothing
Current mood: exhortatory
Category: Writing and Poetry
In his Apology, Plato quotes Socrates as saying "the unexamined life is not worth living". Perhaps it is equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.
(Deeplip)
I posted the above comment on the myspace page of a gifted but self-absorbed young writer. He writes well, but writing well when one has nothing to say is a sad waste of time and talent. If "the self" is to be the subject of every blog, it would behoove him to first get a life and then write about it.
What's In A Name? Current mood: intriguedCategory: News and Politics
Paradise gained
By Josh Peter, Yahoo! SportsSeptember 2, 2006
More USC: Fall of Troy?
LOS ANGELES John David Booty looked as cool as the breeze whispering across the University of Southern California campus.
Showered after a two-hour practice, he sported a T-shirt, shorts and two-day-old stubble while sauntering across the deck of Heritage Hall, a building that houses USC's seven Heisman Trophies. Nearby, the marching band's tuba section boomed notes from "Fight On," and the song girls high-kicked and shimmied during their own practice.
"Sunny and 75 every day," marveled Booty, who endured swamp-like humidity while growing up in Louisiana. "I might never leave this place."
But here in college football paradise, it's about to get hot.
Pressure-cooker hot. ______________________________________________________
A sports journalist named Peter writes a fawning feature article about a football player named Booty. Sounds pretty hot to me!