Diving from a pier in Malta.

oh, the scandal.

(a new, free short story from your favorite fictionist.)

btw. . . I'm working on my 4th collection of short stories. Previews are available at www.myspace.com/TheFictionistOnline.

The other three are available FREE at www.TheFictionistOnline.com

Just for you, sweetpea.

"There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin’s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, Nice weather we’re having."

The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)
NYTIMES.COM (6/3/08)

"Millions of rupiah worth of banknotes were dropped from a small plane (in Serang, Indonesia) where hundreds of people were waiting, in a publicity stunt for a new book." NYTIMES.com

So this is what I have to do to get people to read, huh?

A headline at the NYTIMES as of 9:30PM EST

. . . I suppose this means giving me the right to marry.

Yay.

(That was sarcastic.)

Don't forget to fight for the right to divorce.



remember a time when queers where different?

https://secure2.convio.net/nthp/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr007=e0yg1v7uc1.app14b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=332

The link above will lead you to The National Trust, a website that is trying to preserve the Lower East Side from (even more) major development by adding it to the list of America's historic places. The letter is all filled out already, you just have to write in your name.

Save the grit. Save what is left of NYC.

you can;t get that from Hallmark.

those bastards.

so, LiveJournal will have to do for now.

This is a wet, drippy THANKS to every reader who downloaded absurdities, peculiarities, and Monstrosities for a combined total of 1,070 times as of today at www.TheFictionistOnline.com

curiosities is on its way.

Viva la short story! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Out of curiousity and fear, I went to Google.com/trends to to a little research.

Me noodle wondered, What is the volume of people searching for SHORT STORIES and SHORT STORY related materials (such as news or journals)?



Down she goes.

Surprising, but yet, not very surprising, the US ranks 6th in countries googling SHORT STORIES. Chicago and New York rank 9th and 10th in world cities. If you're in the Philippines, India or Australia. . . Congratulations, those are the top 3.

So, is it the economy stupid? Is it plain stupidity? Is it that people simply do not care anymore?

Whatever it may be, I'll still be writing, printing my books and banging my head against this wall. Windmill.

If you're like me (and can't flee the US for various reasons), yet want to know what's happening on the other side of the Pond:



or you can check out the flickr images which are completely still photos that will not induce vomiting/motion sickness.

"The photographer Barbara Mensch devoted years to documenting the lives of the men who worked along New York City's piers. She pays tribute to that tradition, not long gone yet seeming already to be an element of the city's mythic past, in an exhibition at the South Street Sea Port Museum. The show is largely but not entirely drawn from "South Street," which Columbia University Press published last year."

NYTIMES. COM (4/28/08)

Click HERE to see the amazing slide show of images.

There are no "Stop" signs in space.

The following images taken by Hubble are common galaxy collisions (doesn't make you feel good that we're just one of billions upon billions of gassballs flung into a vast nothingness with absolutely no control over direction and fate?).

Enjoy!









see more HERE

An excellent blog about overpopulation, especially the part about breeders.

Remember when America's East and West coasts were filled with artists and political minds courageous enough to speak out? Yeah. We had a nice pair of balls then. Now (a common theme) it's the rest of the world brave enough to voice their opinions and ACT out. Thanks to the Wooster Collective for the images:

A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.

Yuri Lyalin, 53, took a bus home, ate breakfast and apparently slept like a baby before his spouse noticed a handle sticking out of his back.

He was rushed to casualty but doctors found no vital organs damaged.

Mr Lyalin shrugged the episode off but the drinking partner who stabbed him faces trial, Russian media report.

"Unique and intriguing the case may be, but the accused faces a severe punishment," said Pavel Vorobyov, a deputy prosecutor in the northern city of Vologda.

Drunk Russian sleeps off knifing
BBC NEWS 4/18/08