the world is too much with us

Wordsworth never really floated my boat, but this famous sonnet suddenly comes to mind:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

which street are you on?

A couple semantic peeves: I know it's an easy shorthand during an uneasy time, but this Wall Street vs. Main Street business is ridiculous. I don't live on either street, and don't know anyone else who does either. Can't someone get a little more creative? Side Street? Urban Alley? Dead End? Boulevard of Dreams? Sunday Drive? Off the Beaten Track?

Also, if you live in Ohio or certain other places, the fear of "falling into a recession" is a joke. We're already in one, here. We have already fallen. We're just waiting for the rest of you...

Finally, here's a non sequitur:

b nice

overwhelmed & apocalyptic

Between reading (finally!) the bleak The Road, the Wall Street screw-ups, the Palin factor, a pile of debt, and a truck that refuses to brake, I have not been able to do much but scowl at other scowlers on the bus, go to work, and scowl again on the way home.

But here's something that made me smile. It's been surging around the Internet, but I'm posting it anyway: donate $10 to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name, and she will receive a postcard that lets her know we're thinking about her.

Go to PP's website, click on "donate" and choose to donate in honor of someone else. It will ask for that person's name and address, so input this: Sarah Palin, Alaska State Capitol Building, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001. OR McCain Campaign Headquarters, 1235 W. Clark St., Arlington, VA 22202.

reading at the Lit last week

Me. Phil Metres.

dear collectors

Since you have warned me that you will use any and all information in order to collect a debt, I want you to know I just got a second job. Teaching, which is something I love. But a third job might look like this (payment made in tomatoes and peppers):

confused, but not dazed

RIP David Foster Wallace. Terrible to lose an intelligent person when there are so many stupid ones running around.

(See Sarah Palin's governing style.)

am reading this week

with poet Phil Metres at the Literary Cafe, Thurs., 9/11, 9:30.

last line of Obama's speech

Hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

all of a sudden

I feel inadequate because I don't know how to field-dress a moose.