Reading: The Atlantic Monthly
Music: misc NPR
TV/Movie: Captain Harlock
Link o' the Day: The Atlantic Monthly

For those to whom I’ve promised a pic of the cats, here’s one that’s not as bad as the others coaxed from the digicam. The larger black blob on the bottom is Nemo who is a year old, and the little blob behind him is Phineas, new to casa de tumble. They’re resting up for another long night of chasing each other back and forth across our apartment, waking us in the middle of the night to crashes, and so forth.

We’re cat people now.

* * *
Yesterday was a perfectly wretched sort of day at work,out of sorts and in a bad mood which carried home for a bit. Fortunately Pretty Maggie recognized a bad day and realized (even if I didn’t at the time) that I needed to retreat into hermit-mode for a while--which I did. I pretty much plowed through the rest of the Bickersons biography last night, while also catching up on some overdue correspondence and other work that’s been on the backburner too long. Maybe that’s what put me in the foul mood to begin with--knowing I had stuff that needed to be doing, but I had put off much of it too long.

Anyway, I’m feeling much better today--more caught up--more in balance. More at ease.

* * *
I started a new story today, which isn’t fair to all the other stories I’ve got half-written, but the idea was too good to let slip away. An Elvis impersonator gets murdered in a House of Mirrors at the county fair. Who did it? Loreen, his girlfriend? Doreen, his wife? A rival impersonator? The guy who sells corndogs? Maybe Elvis himself!??!

I haven’t entirely decided. I think it would be too cheap to make a not-dead-yet Elvis the killer.

I’m not a huge Elvis fan. I liked some of his early stuff, and I liked some of his Carl Perkins rip-offs, but I always thought him too cartoonish a person to consider the King of anything. Yet people adored him, despite a plethora of faults. It’ll be interesting to see if this story goes anywhere.

* * *
Today’s link goes to the online presence for The Atlantic Monthly. This is one of the best magazines around--insightful articles and good short fiction. This month’s issue covers the Dean downfall, problems at the New York Times, the life of W. Somerset Maugham, and more.

Enjoy!