…I have two new things--"Rich" @ 52/250 A Year of Flash and "Lost" @ Monkeybicycle. Both are also here under "Words in Print."

…I'm listening to Matt Pond P.A. right now. They're a canadian band and quite good.

…Apparently 6,605 people have pre-registered for the event next week, or so says the AWP newsletter than landed in my email box. Yikes.

…I wrote a poem this morning, just now, like five minutes ago. I think it's good. I read one of Jim Valvis's that he posted from The Foundling Review that was really sharp and it sent me scurring for a blank piece of paper.

…Robert Olen Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for his story collection, "A Bad Scent From a Good Mountain." Evidentially I should have read that instead of, "Intercouse" which I'm trudging through right now. In this book, Mr. Butler writes one page stories about historical figures engaged in lovemaking. For instance, one page will be Helen of Troy's thoughts and emotional responsed while on the next page we'll have Menelasu, King of Sparta, musing on his reaction. The premise is a clever idea. The end result, however, is very bland. It's a lot like eating a fistfull of almonds--chalky, dry and sort of, bleh. There's nothing sexy about Mr. Butler's, "Intercourse," and as everyone with a pulse knows, it's pretty difficult to make sex uninteresting.

…I got Jason Jordan's collection, "Cloud" in the mail and I'm excited to read it inflight to AWP next week.

…I recently watched "Raising Arizona" again because I'm loving the TV show, "Raising Hope," that the film is based on. Nicolas Cage is not my hero by any stretch of the imagination, but he's brilliant in "Arizona" as it the whole movie by the Coehn Brothers. You should rent it again. You'll be glad you did.

…Maybe I have male menopause. I'm having a lot of baby cravings. I love kids and babies. I'm having visions of babies. I'd like a few more. In keeping with that thought, then, here are some more factoids from "Esquire" magazine that you might enjoy, whether you're male or female, parent or not:
1 in 10 -- Number of men who say they aren't comfortable handling a baby
1 in 10 -- Number of men who experience postpartum depression
1 in 4 -- Number of dads who don't take paternity leave
42 -- Percentage of dads who spend less than 2 hours with their kids each day.
1 in 4 -- Number of men who rate their father's parenting skills as "below average"
The major reason -- He didn't show enough love
The average father's top parenting fear -- His kid will run with a bad crowd
The average father's biggest parenting concern -- Not enough money
$181,480 -- The cost to raise a child to age 18
22 -- Percentage of men who think kids should reimburse their parents for raising them
1 in 4 -- Number of men who believe having a child will help keep their marriage from turning sour
19 in 20 -- Number of current fathers who would still want kids if they had to do it over