Less sketch, more etch

Strut cockily with your God.

One hit...Wonder...

Happy pressure.

We flew on the backs of envelopes.

I like surveys, but not taking them.

She's fun to watch play pool, but it ends there.


Music to the rescue.

Beyond belief

Acidic Jew

The new GQ

A Bittman stew

To and from school

Handsome man in front of the Chess Forum

A dream detained

Fun got in my eyes

That was in a past life
(by which I mean college)


Look what we would have missed.

Women of an uncertain age

Isn't every quote necessarily out of context?

A few years ago, I heard J. M. Coetzee read a story, really excellent, and I didn't think it was out there anywhere, but here it is.

I can explain everything!

She had trouble seeing past the brim of her cap;
I had trouble thinking past the rim of my rap.

The battery went out just in time for me to hear the birds and gossip.

Quote about Grand Central, from a National Geographic show about it:
"This place makes you feel like you're more than you are."

How is that

I'm looking forward to drinking some Hawaiian Punch.

I don't understand people who order a single slice of pizza to go. It's a slice. Sit down, and listen to the Pretenders on the radio, or the game on TV, or the countermen's banter. Consider the families and schoolkids who come in. Or stand outside with it.

Grass-fed beef? That's some boast!

They had on the soundtrack to Hipster Heaven.

Lately I've been

Heavy on my feet.

Lady of the Ringlets?

A subtle wave

Keep an eye out for me in them satellite photos.

(I would have done the same thing.)

Condensing flavors

These round, irresistable faces.
Somehow I resisted.

Half-conscious braiding.

Suggestion: "...with movies in my hair."

Wide love.

I sit by this.

Don't block the light.

All bunned up

It's so soft out.

As a kid I loved Saturday morning baths.

Heck yes I want a Yogi button.

My head smarts.

Faith in cross-culture yawns-

High performance

Miyagi here. Miyagi here.


Ride the fog.

If you don't have an identity, no one can steal it.

I no longer know anyone who plays the violin.

But congratulations anyway

Yeah, you better tint those windows.

Ill-considered is still considered.

You can only dress for so much success.

Where don't I know you from?

Smells like popcorn

Five minutes of it here and there on cable.

I'll get it done during the commercials,
while there are still commercials.

Philosophy books seem more promising in the bookstore than they do at home.

We're intent on gadgets.

Seize the gray

A snack before therapy.

I'd like her even if she were a vampire.

Menil

Good names: Man Ray, Cy Twombly


Good title: Souvenir of Nothing (Picabia)


Notion: These would work better in unnatural light.


"I want no eulogy." -John de Menil, letter, 1972


At sunset we clambered around Bygones.

It isn't what it isn't

I learned that from Miss Manners.

Hey--get off my obelisk!

Underly-litigious.

Don't mind if I don't.

For some reason I'm not.

Scientists have found that.

And the home of the rave

Artisinal cheeseburgers.

Das Boot Cut.

Smoking a Gauloise for a lesson in French history.

Dig that do

Sublimey

Novelty salesman: By the time the battery dies, you'll be sick of it.


Famous paintings

A scam artist is still an artist.

Continuing Ed

I'm going to get a Pepsi and sit on a bench in this cloudy park.

I'd like to Bethesda her Fountain.

Cold concrete.

Quiet magic.

This time with feeling

Have you seen my hoodie?

I'm hypermentilating.

Window seat

I'm lost in the starry Galaga sky.


(Books have been written about less)

Marketplace of ideas

When everybody's thinking, "What's everybody thinking?"


He moonwalked into my heart.

Good stuff

From the 3 Musketeers website:

"The personalities of the 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand characters are as follows:

Porthos - a man of the world. He's smooth and sophisticated and exudes self-confidence and personal style. He's a man of chivalry and honor. He's James Bond with a saber.

Athos - brilliant and brave but also clumsy like a nutty professor. He constantly finds himself in awkward situations because he doesn't watch where he's going. He's a scatterbrained hero with a heart of gold.

D'Artagnan - the leader of the trio. He's young and eager, always the first to charge into the fray. He's courageous, gallant and always wins the day."

That's one way of looking at it

Who do I know you from?

Why are you reading that?

Where'd the zone go?
(I was just in it.)

Pop the syst.

Jockeying for good tables.

Observing fish decisions.

No more apologies for reading only contemporary fiction.
The old is woven into the new.
And even if it isn't.


We'll knee through this.

Seize the bidet

Incest with a sister city.

The line between superstition and religion-
Someone has to draw it.

At the museum:
People take pictures of all the wrong things.

Speech opener:
"Let it not be said that..."

Summary

Do what you can-
for good.

Antioxidant overdose

Tumbling down the rabbit hole of the alumni directory. Send a friendly note to the TA who blew me 12 years ago? It's not Christmas until you get a bizarre letter from the past, the words galloping as if the intervening years never happened.

I don't like the metaphor of the rabbit hole. It obfuscates rather than clarifies meaning. No more rabbit holes. The alumni directory should be the comparison that explains other things.

Don't read too much into stuff.

Something came to me in the kitchen.

A gentle vise on my temples.

Precision with language is like...

(I just learned that word.)

See

I miss Blind Date.
If not the show, then what watching it represented.

Do we want people addicted to us?

(Then you shouldn't have offered.)

Sandwish shops

Regarding the "Most Wished For Items" on amazon.com:
Boy do we dream small.
I worry future civilizations will pity us.

I also worry that I haven't been spending enough time thinking about future (and past--same dif) civilizations.

But we cherish and draw strength from these small dreams.

You misunderstand me

You, Miss,
understand me.

Cool out

The front table at Grand Sichuan on Canal.

Triangular buildings.

Narrow escalators.

Holding a cup of coffee through thick gloves.

Chubby squirrels, abandoned chess tables.

Having to pee in winter.

Lately I've been courting mild food poisoning...

Decorations

You're supposed to complain that the holiday season goes on too long,
but I think it happens too fast.

I'll still be looking.

Keeps them out of trouble

On teaching grammar to students from Russia:
Not responsible for lost or stolen articles.

Is it even worth having a regret that doesn't sear?

Ban the butt.

That's me: first man clapping.
Hell, only man clapping.

My way or the sky way.

What's what you're talking about?

Gift books and
Weapons that work.

Frozen nose ring.

This cheapass phone.

Last man clapping

He likes telling people she's a dancer.

That can is top-shelf.

This time, I don't care where we sit.

I need a shoe horn,
but not the kind that you use to help put on shoes.

Recommendation

Have you listened to any podcasts?
Try Tom Shillue--
His voice is like a good bath.

Ask me about my camera

I want to see if that girl is still at the hostel, somehow.

Just because everyone can do it doesn't mean it isn't a skill.

Thanks for not calling me on that.

We're better at hearing things vibrate on surfaces.

It's all history.

What haven't we learned?

Sure I miss things

This is a good season.

Why not The Happy Truth About Sadness?

I've spend minutes staring at her picture.

An oldie but baddie.

Off to the gym.

The give and take of concrete

God bless the secular holidays.

I'll never know how to spell "separate" by heart.

"Scum" is an underrated word.

Maybe we shouldn't hold by years as much as we do.

Slogan: I gotta get over this.

Counterslogan:

Thanksgiving, girls

Across lawns, across lots.

If seeing blue highway signs promising restaurants doesn't thrill you--
There's nothing I can do to help.

Start up

Idea for magazine featuring sexy pictures of Jewish women:
"The Goldberg Variations"

Strictly casual

The last meadow dancers

Lozenge season

Popular works:
The Wind-Up Turd Chronicle
The Wisdom of Clouds

I have another headache

She smells like bagels.
Popping out of winter clothes--
I think I miss my camera phone!

acting on a tip from a neighbor
(a portrait of wolf-whistler's mother)

I have a headache

Mind if I take your dog for a walk?

Philter: A love potion (real vocab)

(What you're missing by reading)

(What they're missing by not reading)

As good as everyone says it is

There's magic in that old TV repair shop.

Fall night/light

What they usually mean is Seize the Dame,
which isn't always the best course of action.

Excremental

When people announce specifically that they have to take a "massive" dump.

What did you come up with?

Happy hour restrictions

Funny covers of old albums

Old women in nightgowns in doorways, keeping watch

Girls in skirts on bikes

Old Italian restaurants with tiled entryways and lighted Rest Room signs
(That we'll probably never eat at)

But in a good way

I'd like to overdraw her account.
I'd like to anthologize her knowledge.
I'd like to transfer to her G train.

Criticize me, will you?

I like being sweetly choked by cigar smoke.

I hope her stage name is Stephanie Noodles.

The existing are naturally prejudiced towards existence.

Grab Bag

plea: I just want to be naked with you.

band: The Legitimates

game show: That's Not Poetry!

fact: The Eckerd drugstore on Manhattan used to be a roller rink.

consolation: You can sleep on the plane.

question from the air: Are those cities?

Keep thinking

That a "Jerusalem artichoke" is one of those obscene and mythical sex moves.

Titles

Windy Picnic

The Cutening

Live on in a flip book

My new favorite place-

Accent elimination

I can't explain, but I will.

The anythingest anything.

Those clouds just can't be real. And they aren't.

Too "thinky"

I like psychology experiments that involve elevator buttons and/or where men choose to place themselves at urinal banks.

This might be wrong

Even the end of the world isn't the end of the world.

Could you watch my fruit stand?

On stage, they're something else.

A lot of people are walking around holding video cameras.

Production company: Question Entertainment

There's no such thing as must-see.

All these sets will be struck.

Requiem for payphones

Wars worrying about how popular they are.

It's been awhile since I've heard Paul discourse on the cultural moment of the Health Salad (cottage cheese, jello, and fruit salad on iceberg lettuce).

Artists market

Interpreting paintings can feel like physical labor.

Is Van Gogh obsolete?

Maybe we're looking at art all wrong.

An orchard vs. a depiction of an orchard.

A cultural history of cultural histories

Wish I knew Latin

God bless direct deposit

Everyone's a hypnotist

I do miss her (if that's the word)

She described the connection we had as a junk bond.

Name that tune

Misheard lyric that, when you found out what the words actually were, was the most crushing.
("I would not give you false hope, only strange and mournful days.")

Memoir of a model: Too Beautiful For Love

Band name: The Morning Afterpills

Easy for you to say

Meet me at my office-

The Learning Annex box at the corner of 2nd and 5th.

Don't worry about what you're going to do with your life.
Consider what your life is doing with you.

How about Disorganized Religion?

Lid

How the stains on a paper coffee cup tell, in cryptic terms, the story of the morning.

To be

Lost to the ages--
Not so bad

I'm a dash man

I'm a dash, man.
I mad ash, man.
I mad! ash=man
-Ima Dashman

Short poems

I could sit
Eating this taco forever
With the breeze and scene


I'm no foot fetishist
But I sure would
Suck that toe ring off


The Israeli girl
Sanctifying her tank top
Serves falafel

A poster of this?

Intellectual girls worrying about their butts.

Fest

If you don't get at least a little nauseous, you didn't do it right.

Open letter to the Gap

You're not selling boxer-briefs with interesting patterns anymore. Don't think I haven't noticed.

Guess

I'm thinking of a number between one and two.

I'm thinking of a concept between beautiful and irresistible.

I'm thinking of a fruit between raspberries and figs.

He of the lascivious hugs

Are we right to demand grins and good moods from salespeople and librarians?

Jamba Juice has become shorthand for something.

I rarely have the energy to order customized sandwiches.


Rocket tits
(Going to be a long, long time)

Thumb nail

That one about the hotel bar.

More mandolin

I like doing push-ups in hotel rooms.

I like soft guitars building to something.

(For a song not to work in a movie...)

Wisconsin

Driving to Madison, stopping in Whitewater.

I have my towns, you have yours, plus we can share.

Have to admit

A cross up high against a grey sky looks pretty great.

Everybody's an expert now

Folks grabbing their crotches and saying, "Google this."

Could power a what

The cumulative grace and beauty of all waitresses

I'm not going to argue

What you see when you look at yourself in an antique mirror.

I'm not going to argue

What you see when you look at yourself in an antique mirror.

Through the scratchitti

Let's just go with the idea of heaven as a lounge in the clouds.

Steve Martin's Art Collection

I'd like to sculpt all the dumb things I've said into a mountain, and shove it somewhere out of the way.

People should eat most food like wine enthusiasts drink wine.

Remember me to Cedar Hill. And to that other hill that doesn't have a name.

What sort of God can't handle some ribbing?

Men explaining phenomena

How about I'll be the blurry figure in the back of the picture.

Ramble on

I can't be in every park at once.
Or can I?

I've seen turtles here before.

These are some stand-up squirrels.

Maybe it's that rare wookpecker that people are arguing about.

After seeing the late-afternoon sun dance on the lake, I understand why you like those sparkly shoes.

(My friend says he has no Great Egrets, and refers to his bathroom as a Turd Sanctuary.)

I love/hate to tell you--

You are already committed.

That's what I'm talking about

This craving for a round of strip poker is overwhelming.

A lot of women are pulling suitcases these days.

Dancing on the tracks.
Asses being "aimed."

I can't get enough of leaning back in chairs.

Remember that time I

Filiopiety: excessive reverence for ancestors and traditions.

Is there one for excessive reverence for, and attachment to, one's personal experience?

Crumpled bills

Beggars' cups as a compassion tax.

To religion

Those who can't believe in God, but can believe in jinxes and luck.

Too gimmicky

I still like doing laundry--the way it connects you to your things, the dailyness of life, and the chore-god. But I wish the laundromat near me had more attractions: video games, a lounge area, magazines, a bumping singles scene.

The end of an individual's memory is a tragedy and a transcendence.

One thing about bad movies--they make regular life seem great and entertaining. Like, I can't wait.

It is unlikely that you will see me hefting a massive golf trophy.

Once removed

Amazing time at an unexpected (but dreamt of) diner.

What I like about root beer is that rubberiness.

Renting a MINI Cooper for a weekend is my top sexual fantasy.

Let's hear it for the virility and potential of the valet guys-

Re-criminalization

Watchdogging the skinny pride movement.

(I'm not so good at stare downs.)

Those bon bons are rich.

If that bra could talk...

Are you joking

Drinking carrot juice to imbibe a retro vitality

I'm excited about having a radio in the kitchen.

A fear of people with clipboards

What about when there is a there there?

Places where people were but aren't

I'm not sure I have the energy for Target.
How about Walgreen's?

Moon bathing

Is that a star or what?

Spill it, Victoria.

I felt like we really bonded.

"Extreme" blow jobs

(But that's as far as it goes)



At some point, self-knowledge yields diminishing returns.

Sounds like my kind of sandwich

But I like being on the grid.

Something about lost notebooks

Something about megachurches...
Something about mergers...
Something about wrestling camp...

Mindful

"...the unimaginable is there to be imagined."
-from a J.M. Coetzee story in a recent New Yorker

Follow that career!

I'm surprised no dairy has used "Gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder" as a tagline.

Wonder if I'll be reincarnated as a Japanese Salaryman.
Look for me in the corners of pachinko parlors.

Is there a federal law that regulates hotel pool closing times?


Life is short.
Life is long.
(I've heard both.)