He's here!

As of last night, I was authorized to reveal the great news!

Please join me in welcoming George and Jennifer's new son, Mom and Dad's first grandchild and the beautiful little boy who has made me a Thia: Nixon Henri Dremousis! (I know, my dear lefty compadres, his first name won't thrill you, but our family is delighted, so try and focus on that.) He's seven pounds, 14 ounces, 21 inches and sports a lovely full head of brown hair. Maybe the handsomest newborn ever!

He was born yesterday at 9:35 a.m. and both families spent a large swath of yesterday encamped at the hospital. I got to hold him for quite some time and he's enchanting.

Out the door to see our lad again. And while I don't believe in omens, Seattle's fiercer-than-usual rain has ceased for the past two days. Most obvious metaphor ever, but we have, in fact, had sun.

We need a new word for "disaster":

I wish "hell" were divorced from religious connotations because it more aptly describes what has transpired in Japan since Thursday.

Everyone already knows where to donate by now and I have no idea if thoughts and prayers work, but I'll keep sending mine, just in case, to the victims, their loved ones and the first responders.

Of equal personal importance, a close loved one is back in the hospital for the second time in three weeks. Again, I send thoughts and prayers, hoping they help, unsure of their impact.

Life continues reminding us it is beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.

My newest piece for TNB, "Mike Sacks Really Wants a Meat-pocket", is up now:

I interview Mike Sacks' about his new, wickedly droll and superbly reviewed essay collection, Your Wildest Dreams within Reason.

As I state in the intro after alluding to the horror unfolding in Japan, "In a world that will never make sense, we need smart people who make us laugh. So, thank you, Mike Sacks, for helping us keep the lids on our pill jars.":

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/ldremousis/2011/03/mike-sacks-really-wants-a-meat-pocket/

Because we're just a font of good news around here:

The Wall Street Journal's newest CFIDS piece, on whether it's safe for those of us with CFIDS to donate blood and the role the XMRV retrovirus might play in determining the answer:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/03/07/xmrv-and-the-blood-supply-more-study-needed/

As I noted the other day, the Wall Street Journal's CFIDS reporting has been exemplary. If you have CFIDS, particularly an acute presentation in an advanced state like I do, even the thought of donating blood is criminally negligent. I would never risk inflicting this upon anyone, much less some poor bastard who needed a blood transfusion. Within the past year, the governments of the U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Australia have issued edicts legally prohibiting those of us with CFIDS from donating blood. In this country, the Red Cross announced last year, thanks, but no thanks. The FDA has been advised to do the same and we're waiting for their conclusion.

One of the things that fascinates me about this discussion is that it's finally being taken seriously. One of the first questions I asked after being diagnosed early in 1992 (I was egregiously ill nine months before I had a diagnosis) was, "Can I donate blood?" I followed these with, "Could I transmit this sexually?" and "If I were to get pregnant, could I give this to the fetus?" The answer I received from dozens of doctors was, basically, "Hell if I know." And they honestly didn't. But really, how fucking obvious was it that these were pertinent questions?

Twenty years later, with over a million Americans diagnosed with CFIDS and credible estimates running much higher, it's gratifying and vindicating the illness is increasingly treated with the seriousness it always deserved.

I can't help but ask, though, "What the hell took so long?"

From the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News and Elle Magazine, four new CFIDS features outstanding as they are pertinent:

1) Elle Magazine's gorgeously etched profile on Laura Hillenbrand, author of the acclaimed bestsellers Seabiscuit and Unbroken. A searingly honest and often funny look at what it's like to write each day while your body slowly unravels:

http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Health-Fitness/Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome-A-Celebrated-Author-s-Untold-Tale

2) The New York Times continues its superb CFIDS coverage with this dismantling of the recent Lancet study in Britain and explanation why a reliable diagnostic test is crucial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/health/research/08fatigue.html

3) The Wall Street Journal continues its superb CFIDS coverage with an examination of how the illness has continued to spread over the past 25 years, and again, why a reliable diagnostic test is of utmost importance. Written by a DePaul psychology professor who has had CFIDS for 21 years:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704507404576179031979295592.html

4) And the most buoying of all, the new study, lauded by Dr. Nancy Klimas, the nation's foremost CFIDS researcher, that has discovered 700 spinal fluid proteins unique only to those with CFIDS. This is the news that finally brings the diagnostic test within reach. Its importance can't be overestimated:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035610.shtml?tag=stack

Again, profound thanks to my loved ones who always believed me and to those who met me later and stood by me. To those who doubted me, well, beware of Greeks with long memories.

"Time travel is lonely..."--John Vanderslice

Because it's an effective writing warm-up but mostly because it's fun, I post six-word stories on Smith Magazine nearly each day. (As noted last year, I had a piece included in Smith's latest HarperCollins anthology, It All Changed in an Instant and read at the University Bookstore stop of their tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV8VpKj50Ds)

Went to post this morning and discovered one of mine is Story of the Day again, which is always pleasing, only it's the one I wrote about last year's Oscars: "Will miss watching Oscars with him.":

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/story.php?did=103474

That held equally true last night, of course, but I'd spent the afternoon w/ two of my oldest and dearest friends and had run into a pair of my favorite colleagues and was putting a better face on things this year, because I can. I still hurt unremittingly but the shock has dissipated and I'm not shattered in the way I was at first. (I still hate the outcome and will hate it until I'm dead. But that's gotta be self-evident to anyone with a functioning brain stem.)

So it's strange how time has again folded in on itself, which it does all the time with grief and, also, if you're a writer.

So much for this year's half-dozen words on Aaron Sorkin.

And the laurel-resting continues:

One of my dear lefty colleagues recently chided me for being too hard on Greece and its ongoing economic debacle. I explained to him nearly each Greek-American I know had predicted the motherland's implosion and while creating the building blocks for contemporary democracy, math, theater and Western philosophy remains equally inspiring and astounding, toppling the EU is kind of a huge fucking deal.

Today, the latest from Forbes on Greece's new "I Won't Pay" movement:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/22/general-eu-greece-i-won-apos-t-pay_8319311.html

Magic:

The Washington Square Hotel posted this photo on its Twitter feed today:

http://twitpic.com/42a0vu

Yes, I know New York winters permeate one's bone marrow and they're damned near impossible to navigate with a cane, but dear god, I remain entranced. (The last time I was in New York, it was 10 degrees F with wind chill, I had a 100 degree fever and needed the cane the entire trip and it was still completely fucking worth it. But did you expect me to reach any other conclusion?)

My new essay for Nerve, "A Foray into the Domestic Arts", is up now! Cookies, sex and the intersection of the two!

First off, thanks so much to everyone for your delightful birthday wishes yesterday. Imbibed the leftover cake from Kingfish this morning and am experiencing a sugar crash not unlike the opium madness Burroughs wrote of in Naked Lunch. ("I've got the fear!")

If we've known each other awhile, you know this is the fourth version of this essay that has run in the past ten years. And if we know each other well, you know the full story behind it, which is even funnier, though I'll omit select details here. Let's just say a certain someone used to repeatedly mention I left out the part how we'd already dated on-and-off before this story begins and that I'd broken up with him the previous time. I'd playfully retort, "Maybe you should write your own essay then."

When a longer version of this piece was published in the Seal Press anthology, Single State of the Union, alongside essays from Margaret Cho, Chelsea Handler and some fine writers who happen to be dear friends of mine, the latter group of us were asked to do readings at Elliott Bay Book Company, the University Bookstore and at Queen Anne Books. He attended the Queen Anne Books event with my folks, clapped louder than anyone, then Mom and Dad took us to dinner afterward.

Obviously, we did get back together again, but I never did bake cookies again:

http://www.nerve.com/love-sex/true-stories/grand-gestures-of-love-gone-wrong?page=4

Prompting nacho comsumption to fall drastically:

Hey, straight guys!

If you'd admit you're a wee curious about fucking each other, the NFL would become superfluous.

As would bar fights and any film in which Hugh Jackman transmogrifies.

Think it over and get back to me.

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

As usual, the inability to empathize has disheartening consequences:

Everything about this bill is revoltingly sexist, out-of-touch and cruel. I'm not a fan of Speaker Boehner (obviously) but I praised his eloquence when Congresswoman Giffords was shot. I don't foresee praising him again.

From New York Magazine, "New Bill Reportedly Proposes Restrictions on Federal Funding for Abortions":

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/abortion.html

Contained: a radical redefining of rape and incest.

A thousand times no.

Egypt's brave writers risk imprisonment, torture and death:

Well-researched and detailed new piece on the pernicious forces battling Egyptian writers who are calling for democracy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41285248/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

All power to them. And goddamnit, we are so lucky to live here.

The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience, Seattle Edition #2!

The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience, Seattle Edition #2 is Friday, April 8, 7 p.m. in the Jewelbox Theater at the Rendezvous!

Last time, the Stranger called us "a big goddamned deal"; KOMO4.com deemed us "the six best authors in town" (a wee hyperbolic but a lovely compliment nonetheless); and City Arts said we were "funny and sharp".

Best not fuck this one up.

The brilliant Jonathan Evison whose latest novel, West of Here, just received a starred review from Booklist and--hold on to your hat!--Vanity Fair christened "a booming, big-hearted epic" is on board and I'll reveal the rest soon.

Five bucks at the door. We had a sold-out house at the premiere in September--hope to see you on April 8!

Seriously, it's got the makings of a Discovery Channel documentary:

I'm fairly certain the emails in all three inboxes are now asexually reproducing. While it's objectively fascinating and, more importantly, the content contained therein is humbling, moving and gratifying, despite returning scads each day, I'm still not caught up. "After the Fire" has, in fact, caught fire and I'm really kind of speechless at the response it has engendered even if--and this goes without saying--I'd much rather write of him alive.

Again, if you haven't heard back from me--and I'm positive your life continues unabated in the meantime--you will very soon.

Happy Sunday, all.

My new Seattle Weekly feature is online and on stands now!

My new Seattle Weekly feature, "An Incomplete History of Clutch Douglass' Journey to the '80s" is out now:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2011-01-19/music/an-incomplete-history-of-clutch-douglass-journey-back-to-the-80s/

Fun being funny again!

A brief catch-up while dinner is in the oven:

• The Nerve essay (see previous post) generated a volume of letters as large as it was unforeseen. Completely bittersweet, given the piece's topic, and deeply humbling that people have chosen to share their own stories of loss. Each missive deserves a thoughtful response and all three of my inboxes have been overflowing for the past 10 days. I'm nearly caught up, but if you haven't heard from me yet, you will soon.
• Re Dr. King's birthday on Monday, those who think we live in "post-racial" nation now that we have an African-American President should read the comments on any well-trafficked site whenever said President is mentioned. As one of my friends says, "The only people who think this is a 'post-racial' society are always white."
• I'm going to concentrate on the astoundingly good news Congresswoman Giffords stood up today and momentarily ignore the House repeal of health care reform, which the Senate, of course, has no intent to take up. The only thing the House GOP understands less than health care reform, apparently, is health.
  

My new essay for Nerve, "After the Fire", is up:

Hard to write; much harder not to. Deeply touched by the insightful comments:

http://www.nerve.com/love-sex/true-stories/true-stories-after-the-fire

Hard to know where to begin:

Since first watching CNN's "Breaking News" report yesterday while nestling with the puppy and returning emails, i.e. engaging in unremarkable Saturday morning behavior, I've been incredibly saddened and upset by the horror that unfolded in Tuscon.

I feel awful for the victims and for their loved ones. I send Congresswoman Giffords and each survivor prayers and healing thoughts and wish them recovery with minimum trauma and maximum resiliency. The families of the deceased will always bear the scars and I hope they are able to find as much peace as they can. Found out today Judge John Roll was a longtime friend of a family friend and if we gauge others by the company they keep, Roll was a very good man indeed. And while it's hardly without precedent, I still can't wrap my mind around someone shooting a nine year-old girl. Or the level of hate required to shoot Giffords point-blank in the head.

Much discussion has resulted about the increased political vitriol of recent years and whether the gun cross-hairs Sarah Palin placed on 20 "targeted" opponents, among them Giffords, was a contributing factor to the actions of the deranged Jared Loughner. I'm 43 and those my age who are politically active have frequently commented in recent times we have never seen this kind of hate in U.S. politics. We feared someone would get killed or severely wounded. (For the record, and this should be obvious, but I would be equally horrified had a Republican congressperson been shot. Our elected officials shouldn't have to risk their lives.) Loughner bears the ultimate responsibility but I do think Palin and those who engage in sustained and pernicious "targeting" of their political opponents shoulder some of the blame. A sane person could view Palin's cross-hairs all day everyday and be unmoved to shoot one of the listed. But it's kind of fucking obvious not everyone is sane. And when you have roughly two and a half million Facebook supporters, as does Palin, keeping such a graphic on your page is spectacularly unwise. Whether Loughner was influenced by it remains to be seen; even if he wasn't, well, so what? Said graphic accomplished nothing except the notion it's valiant to dehumanize your opponents. And if history teaches us anything, it's that it's easy to harm those you dehumanize.

Speaking of Facebook, one of its most disheartening elements is the way in which some almost reflexively lunge for the jugular in political discussions. I'm openly, unabashedly lefty on most issues but quite vocal when I think Republicans have a good point (for instance, I'm not a fan of Boehner's and have made several jokes at his expense, but he has handled this tragedy with leadership and compassion). I have Republican loved ones, each of whom is well-informed and carefully considers the issues. On the left, we frequently accuse the right of lockstep thinking and it's often an accurate portrayal, but there's a whole lotta group think on the left, too, and in some ways it's even sadder because we insist we're the intellectuals. I enjoy healthy debate and most of the discussions on my page are just that. But it's assinine how many times in the two plus years I've been on Facebook I've had to chide someone for writing on my page they want to kill Sarah Palin. As I noted three months ago during the '10 camgaign when a colleague said his hypothetical slogan would be, "Kill Dino Rossi", this is the kind of thing that (rightfully) outrages us when some dipshit posts it about President Obama in comment sections everywhere; we can't do the inverse but somehow think it's okay because we have a million reasons we loathe Rossi because the comment section dipshits feel the same about Obama. None of us should advocate killing our opponents. Period. Why isn't this self-evident?

The fact Loughner was turned away from the military but still able to legally purchase a gun will forever baffle me and all sentient beings. This wasn't a question of the Second Amendment but of common sense: if your mental health problems preclude you from carrying a weapon overseas, they preclude you from carrying one to a Safeway parking lot.

We can do better than this. We'll have to.

All thoughts and prayers to those whose lives were ruptured yesterday.

The world grows increasingly interconnected with each passing year and...

...this would be horrible news under any circumstances, but one of my best friends for the past 23 years just moved to London yesterday, so I find this particularly disturbing.

Wishing the Brits best of luck and very much hope this is a false alarm. In particular, I want my friend and his wife to be safe. And holy hell, what fucked up news to receive the first day in your new city:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/06/london.terrorist.attacks/index.html

And now, thanks, Huffington Post and once again, Smith Magazine!

Fun piece in which to be included and a rollicking good way to launch 2011:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-smith/six-word-memoirs-new-year_b_803327.html?ref=fb&src=sp#s218347&title=Finish%20manuscript%3B%20click%20heels%3B%20drink%20heavily.