I abhor your bland insistence,
yet admire your persistence.
Nag on, you resolute harpy!
Illustration of a Harpie by Jean-Baptiste Coriolan, Monstrorum Historia, Ulisse Androvandi, 1642
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Poster for “Alien 3” (1992)
20th Century Fox.
“The cities swept about me like dead leaves …”
“The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Throwback Thursday: Wacky WallWalkers!!!
Okay, the Apple Jacks commercial below is a pretty regrettable example of 1980’s cornball marketing buffoonery. I’ll tell you what, though — I have fond memories of that wicked-cool glow-in-the-dark Wacky Wallwalker that came as the cereal box prize. (I am linking her to the DJ Nurse Annabella Youtube channel, by the way.)
Had I gotten mine as a prize with Apple Jacks? I guess. I know my mom had returned from the store with these for me once or twice. (They were the non-glowing variety, but they were still fun as hell.) She only partly regretted her decision when it became apparent that they left vague streak marks on white walls. When these cheap toys started losing their key adhesiveness, all you had to do was wash them with soap to make them sticky again. That might have had something to do with it.
That definitive treasure trove of information, Wikipedia, informs me that Wacky Wallwalkers are made from “elastomer.” And they raked in about 80 million dollars for the Japanese-American inventor who bought the rights to the toy around 1983 from their prior owner in Japan.
I swear I want to play with one of these right now.
Cover to “House of Mystery” #191, Neal Adams, 1971
DC Comics.
I’m Down in the Dirt with my Social Isolation!
Seriously, though, the May 2020 issue is a great read — even if page 14 has a poem by that weirdo Eric Nolan guy.
“Heptu Bidding Farewell to the City of Obb,” John Duncan, 1909
Winedrunk Sidewalk features “Contagion is a Despot Poet”
I am so pleased to share here that another poem of mine was published today over at Winedrunk Sidewalk: Shipwrecked in Trumpland — it’s my recent short poem entitled “Contagion is a Despot Poet.”
You can find it right here.
Thanks again, Editor John Grochalski, for allowing me to join the community over at Winedrunk Sidewalk!
(She walked into that one.)
I was talking to a writer friend over the phone last night about how we could encourage each other to return our respective works in progress.
Her: “If I could sketch out time on my schedule, I think I could work on it on a regular basis.”
Me: “If I could turn back time — if I could find a way — I’d take back those words that hurt you, and you’d stay.”
(I know it was a corny joke, but I still thought it was good enough to Cher.)
“Byblis,” William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1884
