"self-righteous callow spine-grating right-wing misogynist idiot": 17 syllables

Sarah Palin for Poet Laureate

Wherein another figure is introduced.

Okay, dear reader. It seems like a good time to add another pseudonym to the population of this blog's world. Not for nothing have I extended by work trip into a vacation trip in the sultry tropics. There is, I confess, a motivation beyond coconuts, one who stands about 6'2". Of the male persuasion. Blue-eyed subcategory. I've been casting about for a pseudonym which is illuminating without being unduly revelatory, and I've had a hard time. I've realized that coming up with pseudonyms is one of the hardest parts of maintaining a blog, for me. I am no Charles Dickens, apparently. Indeed, naming Thing 1 and Thing 2 (not for this blog--in real life) I found to be a tremendous responsibility, one that took two really word-centered people the greater part of nine months to accomplish. How to determine the signifier for a person?


So I ask you, fellow bloggers, how have you settled on the perfect moniker for the important figures in your lives?

********

Seriously, I'm absolutely nuts about this guy, and I have a feeling he'll be showing up here from time to time. So he needs a name. I'm thinking Neruda. Si?

Jet lag.

And I haven't even left yet. Here's my Tues-Thurs:

Tues 9am: teach and race to get stuff done all day so that I can blow this taco stand for a while

Tues 730pm: leave school

Tues 830: go running

Tues 1030: head to airport

Tues 1159pm(!): flight leaves to hub city on east coast

Wed 5am: arrive hub city, 2.5 hour layover

Wed 730: flight to midwest city

Wed 930: arr midwest city, check into hotel

Wed 1pm: 2 hour talk on Renaissance

Wed 6pm: poetry reading

Wed 8pm: festive dinner

Thurs 9am-noon: private poetry workshops with midwest grad students

Thurs midday: lunch w/ grad students

Thurs 5pm: flight out of midwest city, to a week of well-deserved vacation in the US tropics

Thurs 10pm: arrive in tropical destination, take bubble bath, sleep hard for many, many hours

We who are about to travel (frantically) salute you.

I wrote a joke.

I'm not a professional, not by any means. And this isn't professional-grade comedy. But I think it's a worthy effort, certainly popsicle-stick quality. By the way, I have a strange mental disorder: I can never remember jokes. So I'll probably forget this within the week. On the upside? It will remain ever fresh, ever surprising. Try telling it to me next time you see me, and amuse yourself with the look of searching and bewildered concentration on my face.

Q: Why don't vultures ever check luggage?
A: They prefer carry-on.

Thank God.

"...The blaze of promise everywhere."
----Mark Strand

Heart-thumping-pulse-racing addlepated distracted and above all HOPEFUL yearning.

When the hell will those polls close?

Please. Please.

I think that I may actually burst into tears of joy.

VOTE.

PLEASE.