For National Mutt Day, I present our two goofballs, seen here about to leap into action, or at least to inhale a couple of treats.
I’m happy to announce that the editors of Gingerbread House have nominated my short fiction, “Grief Machines” for a 2019 Pushcart Prize. I’m extremely honored.
More Kentucky: Art with Ronnie edition.
More Kentucky: 610 Magnolia, 21c, Churchill Downs.
More Kentucky.
Kentucky thus far.
As a piece of journalism, this reads like a mess, but then the subject sort of dictates the form: Inside the Flat Earth Conference on The Daily Beast.
Excelsior.
I glean from this story further evidence that the institutions our culture has built “work" only out of sheer bulk and inertia and fail catastrophically far too often. The 3rd largest cause of death in the US is medical error? Horrific. Losing Laura from The Boston Globe. 📚
Halloween has passed for the year, but here’s something creepy to read anyway: Thinking Outside the Casket on The Nib. 📚
Also, meetings are now facilitated by Mr. Grandy, who also teaches gym class and Driver’s Ed and who has worn the same dark blue windbreaker twenty-two semesters in a row. Mr. Grandy doesn’t want to catch any of you punks spitballing in here, either.
Today’s poem for you to read: Reach, by Natasha Trethewey. Also, go vote if you haven’t already, preferably for the side not trying to lead us into extinction. 📚
Today’s outrage: A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada. I fear many will find the end of this gilt-edged age horriffic. What a colossal misdirection of resources.
Today’s comic: Magic on Deck by Andrew Greenstone. Like many white dudes my age, I’ve owned some Magic cards, but I never got into the game beyond playing once or twice, and I’m unsure how I feel about that much energy expended on it.
Today’s story: Empty Box by Robert Maas. The DSF stories have hit a bit harder lately, seems to me. 📚
Happy Halloween.
Today’s required reading: The Souls of Latarian Milton by Donald Quist. 📚
Hadn’t spent any time on Webtoons until Colleen Doran & Warren Ellis started publishing on it. Dunno if this was intended to draw old farts like me to the site, but I’m enjoying it. Finality 📚
Always a good day when a new Wild Cards story arrives. Fitting In by Max Gladstone. 📚
Just bring back streetcars, light rail, and interstate train lines, for pete’s freaking sake. Please? Apple files patent for linking battery packs between moving electric vehicles
You should read a poem every day. Here’s one for Chicago(f)ans: Loveable Losers by Rachel M. Simon 📚
Also, Enterpise Tech Company, why are you still returning strings like “/Date(1530145000000+0530)/” in your JSON responses in 2018? Stop trying to make that a thing.
I’d largely forgotten what working with enterprise tech was like. HTTP API methods named “GetWhatever” that require empty “POST” bodies. API Docs sent as Word files. Conference calls with 14 people from 4 companies. Like coming home, if home were a Superfund site on …
It ain’t the most elegant written thing, but then these ain’t the most elegant times, either: My Day With the Donald, a modern American tall tale by Jeff Cuffee in Heavy Feather Review. 📚
What I'm thinking about today: constraints and accountability
On a recent episode of ComicLab, Jake Parker of Inktober.com suggested that constraints and accountability make for better art. The former I have long agreed with, which is why I prefer writing flash (non)fiction to traditional stories now. The latter I had not considered as much, but thinking about …