Mommy Kitty, You’ll Be Missed

T.S. Eliot wrote that the “naming of cats is a difficult matter.”  Mommy Kitty had many names like: the Flufftress, the Fluff Monster, the Fluffness monster, Fluff wad, Fluffikins, and Princess Fluff. I’ll miss that cat, whatever her name.

Men die miserably everyday

In Sebastopol there is a wonderful network of poets and poetry lovers organized by Larry Robinson. Every few months, he invites people to a poetry salon. I’d call it an evening of conversation speaking only in poetry and song. It’s an amazing experience if you ever get the chance.

A couple of years ago, I heard Bill Denham recite the first section from Mark Doty’s “Atlantis.” I recall being in awe at the poem and Bill’s reading. I revisit this poem every so often, I still get choked up every time I get to “he is where we’ll be hit first, / he’s the part of us / that’s going to get it.”

Bill is also the letterpress artist who made my first broadside. When Bill emailed me this morning to tell me a about a book of poems he’s publishing, that’s something I have to support. 

Dog & Cat

Persimmon Harvest

Native persimmons are much smaller than the Japanese varieties, but they are every bit as tasty. I just picked these in my backyard.

Spatial Data, Rocks, and Voting

Image via Matt Stiles @ NPR.

Why the blue line across the South in the sea of red? Plankton may be the answer. Read the story at Krulwich’s blog:

These same counties went mostly blue in 2004 and 2000. Why? Well, the best answer, says marine biologist Craig McClain, may be an old one, going back before the Civil War, before 1776, before Columbus, back more than 100 million years to the days when the Deep South was under water.