It speaks to how bad Seattle's snow situation is right now...

...that a man killed a stranger with an axe Monday morning a half-mile from my home in full view of school children and it has barely made the news.

In a strange and awful coincidence, the murderer lived on my street and was treating at the mental health facility on Olive; both were true of the 2007 knife-wielding New Year's Eve murderer.

Like everyone, I feel for the victims' families and wish no one had to suffer such horror.

And not to point fingers, but the mental health facility on Olive might want to step up its standard of care.

Particularly the drunk guys riding their bikes in the snow:

Don't get pieces like this because so much of the dogs vs. cats debate comes down to the genetics and environment of the individual animal:

http://jezebel.com/5697229/science-says-dogs-are-smarter-than-cats

That said, Thomas, of course, is smarter than most two-legged creatures roaming the planet.

Sleep well!

Several inches of snow have fallen since this afternoon, which is fine for those of us who work from home. Thanksgiving is probably canceled for a large chunk of the city, though, as most of it is a series of hills. Local news is reporting two buses just spun out on I-5 and are blocking three lanes then they showed my neighborhood, which is too snowed over for cars at all. Not that this has stopped a cabal of drunken sledders from commandeering the nearby hills as they did two years ago. I'm bemused, but the puppy is calling total bullshit on these antics and for now, at least, I've kept him distracted.

Much more importantly, a friend of mine just posted Wall Street Journal reports that North Korea and South Korea have exchanged fire and it's utterly horrifying:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703904804575631763523837910.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

So this is all really useful because slumber tonight was looking too peaceful.

And vegans will like pizza, too:

There will be peace in the Middle East before non-writers understand how we write and why.

(With a few notable exceptions, of course.)

Belated good news re The Nervous Breakdown:

Fellow TNB colleague and pal Aaron Dietz reads from his new and well-received novel, Super, tonight at The Hideout. Details:

http://www.aarondietz.us/?page_id=423

Hope to see you there!

Also, this appeared in my Google alerts yesterday a month and a half after the fact, but in addition to rave previews from The Stranger and from KOMO4.com, it turns out The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience Seattle Edition also received a swell write-up from City Arts Magazine:

http://www.cityartsmagazine.com/blog/2010/09/catch-nervous-breakdown-literary-series

Retroactive high fives to all.

Two reasons John Edwards remains useful:

1) Aaron Sorkin is writing a screenplay based on the Edwards biography, The Politician. The odds it will be less than brilliant and wildly entertaining are roughly the same John Boehner will forgo bronzer.

2) New York Magazine is reporting via the National Enquirer (yeah, I know, but the Enquirer has been dead accurate throughout Edwards' protracted imbroglios) that Rielle Hunter is now fucking around on him:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/11/enquirer_claims_rielle_hunter.html

Still bummed those two opted to procreate. Nearly seven billion humans roaming the earth; we were fine without their contributing to the gene pool. (Not that it's their kid's fault, of course. I'm sure she's lovely.)

In seven short hours! Woo hoo!

I'm telling a story tonight as part of Annex Theatre Company's "60 Seconds Max", 11:00 p.m., 1100 E. Pike St., $10 at the door. Forty-six performers and readers and a panoply of great and good things. Also, ample booze on the premises.

Netflix can wait 'til tomorrow night!

[Saturday morning postscript: crackling and compelling show! Really enjoyed being part of it. More on Annex Theatre, one of Seattle's best and longest running:

http://www.annextheatre.org/]

Onward!

We knew this was coming.

The best strategy? Take a deep breath and begin the fight for 2012.

And please forgo infantile "I'm moving to..." wailing. It accomplishes nothing, reinforces the perception we're crybabies and insults all who have fought real oppression.

My dad has Nazi shrapnel in his leg. I think I can begin and end my days with John Boehner as House Speaker. And history will vindicate Nancy Pelosi and her arduous work on behalf of health care reform.

Learn and move forward.

Then sniffing a bunch of glue:

The one thing we know for certain is that in 75 years, everyone reading this will be dead.

Some will die from accident, homicide, suicide, "act of God" (hurricane, et al), but the overwhelming majority of us will die from illness. And most of those illnesses will be protracted and probably grisly.

But yeah, President Obama's health care legislation backed by the Democrats was a "pet issue".

The electorate is gargling bongwater.

With two days left until the election...

...Patty Murray and Dino Rossi, Washington State's senatorial candidates whose positions overlap not at all, are tied in polls at 47% to 47%. (It's axiomatic that King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties tilt heavily toward Murray but, of course, there's that pesky rest of the state.) The Tea Party, which I loathe, includes women to a greater degree than do Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose work I love and admire.

The person closest to me and I got drunk Election Night '08 and I think I might drink on Tuesday, but for entirely different reasons.

The Rally to Restore Sanity:

Jon Stewart's closing remarks were incredibly salient and could have stood alone.

In three hours, though, three women performed, one briefly, none solo.

"Sanity" apparently has a ball sack.

Nostalgia is fruitless and the Nineties were fraught with their own complications...

...but it's astounding it was a mere decade ago we had reasonable expectations flights and elections would go off without a hitch.

From New York Magazine, "Dogs Looking Depressed in Their Halloween Costumes":

Photo slideshow of the annual Halloween dog costume extravaganza at Tompkins Park, with dogs looking understandably pissed off:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/10/dog_halloween_parade.html?%3Fmid=facebook_nymag#photo=1x67315

To each their own and all that, but I'd never dress up Thomas because he's already one of history's cutest creatures and it'd just be gilding the lily. Plus, as the pictorial demonstrates, dogs don't want to wear your grandfather's fedora.

Caroline Leavitt's new novel, Pictures of You:

I'll be writing more about this in at least one upcoming piece, but when Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt (Girls in Trouble) is released January 25th, you'd be foolish to overlook it. Leavitt's is the best kind of literary fiction: vivid and warm and depicting a heightened reality while prompting one to read in lieu of eating or sleeping. I'm a slow reader (I remember nearly everything I read, but I imbibe it slowly) and I finished my advance copy in a few days. And sure, we're friends, but I'm close with dozens of writers and not all of them elicit this degree of enthusiasm. More on Leavitt's work:

http://www.carolineleavitt.com/

I still believe Anita Hill:

Debate has ensued whether Anita Hill should have publicly disclosed Ginny Thomas' voicemail.

Hill was right for three reasons:

1) It demonstrates the bizarrely contorted views of harassers and those who defend them.

2) She prevents Ginny from publicly relaying an untrue version of events.

3) Hill demonstrates nearly two decades later she is resolutely unapologetic because she did absolutely nothing wrong.

I've always deeply admired Anita Hill and my respect for her has grown.

My KUOW piece is archived online now:

Much thanks to the A Guide to Visitors producers. And in addition to emails from friends and family, I've received a few from strangers. Buoying when the Internet uses its powers for good.

My piece is archived in "Hour Six" and it's the fourth one in:

http://kuow.org/specials/aguidetovisitors.php

KUOW, 8:00 tonight:

I have a piece airing on KUOW 94.9 FM (Seattle's NPR affiliate) at 8:00 tonight. Part of the stellar A Guide to Visitors series.

Details:

http://kuow.org/program.php?id=21278

Finally:

A federal panel has urged changing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome's name to reflect the illness' serious and multi-systemic nature:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Health/panel-pushes-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-change/story?id=11891485&page=1

I spent most of my twenties having people ask me, "So, are you tired all the time?" The above news is overdue and vindicating.

Sometimes it's almost too easy mocking Mitt Romney but...

...it doesn't make it any less fun.

The latest? The once and future GOP presidential candidate who spent $40 million of his own cash to come in third behind Mike Huckabee in the '08 race has made it a condition of his speaking engagement contract that hosts purchase several thousand copies of his new "book", No Apology:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/10/15/mitt_romney_book/index.html

Say what you will about John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, but you gotta like that by all accounts they consider Romney a pretty-boy, flip-flopping stuffed shirt.

All sides can agree on something after all.

Wishing the Chilean miners and their families all the best in the years ahead:

Everyone with a soul was moved by yesterday's astoundingly good news. Will things get a bit more complicated physically, psychologically and financially in the upcoming months? Undoubtedly. For now, though, it's glorious to revel in humanity at its best.

In context, this is de minimis, obviously, but my six-word memoir on the event was chosen by Smith Magazine as their Story of the Day:

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

Permalink to the story:

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/story.php?did=154666

As always, thanks to editor Larry Smith and everyone at his eponymous mag for consistently generating compelling web content.