National Health Post.

I'm really annoyed at myself for not having covered this more in the past several weeks.

Here's an astute argument from Uwe Reinhardt:

A 'Common Sense' American Health Reform Plan.

And here's an unabashedly emotional appeal from Jeff Danziger:

Alauras 11, 31.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Lorain, Ohio.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
- What's your favorite Toni Morrison book?

Alauras 10, 31.

- LINK OF THE WEEK -
Hotpads.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
How many addresses have you had in the last five years?

Alauras 8, 31.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -
"A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized."
- Fred Allen

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
What holiday would you like to receive more attention?

Alauras 7, 31.

- NEWS OF THE WEEK -
New York Times: Times Topics: Health Care Reform.

We should all read this... it's very important.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
What builds character?

Alauras 1, 31.

- Sorry about ongoing delays guys. This time I have an excuse I'm happy about. I was in Miami, stalking the beaches, surfing the swamps, driving the coast, and having a good ol' time.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -



What is this?

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
What is your favorite thing that has happened this month?

Concept: Collaborative Writing Project This Summer.

Elisabeth Blair and I are composing/editing a Gothic Funk novel to be titled Hollywood. However, it is set in Chicago.

I'm taking charge of the writing, and Lisa of the music, but we're looking for additional collaborators. In addition to a tangible application of the "gothic funk aesthetic," Hollywood will also be a teen noir (or at least a 20-something noir) for those of you familiar with that term... think of an episode of Veronica Mars codirected by Baz Luhrman and David Lynch. It will also be a hypertext novel a la Judd Morrissey, Shelley Jackson, and John Cayley.

Let me know if you're interested in contributing writing (or something else) to this piece, or if you're interested in more details.

It isn't a paying gig, but you will get credit for publication via the Internets.

Thanks,

Connor Coyne

Diary: Phenology: July 9 - 15, 2009.

An abundance of squirrels. There are millions of them. I've never seen so many as this year. About a month ago, I noticed something; when I visit Michigan, squirrels are prime candidates for roadkill. But I never see roadkilled squirrel in Chicago. So have the Chicago groups evolved (or learned) that cars are common, and deadly?

Raspberries on a tree in an overgrown vacant lot in Canaryville. They were gooooood.

Countless lightning bugs. Amazing bugs. The Michigan farms win, because there's nothing as magical as a thousand fireflies lighting up over a fallow field. But it's pretty cool to see them flash bright by the dozens in front of brick tenements.

Noisy birds nesting.

My pepper plant has sprouted bell peppers.

But (alas) the days are growing noticeably shorter. Chicago summer is brief and bitter this year. Bitterish, but not bitter.

Buzzing mosquitoes.

Alumas 24, 31.

I will post more this evening...

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -



Where is this?

(Hint: I'm going there this weekend.)

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Where do you want to go on vacation?

Body: Storms.

Alumas 23, 31.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -

In the thirties balance-of-power thinking was still quite strong, the diplomats were all down with Balkanosis, spies with foreign hybrid names lurked in all the stations of the Ottoman rump, code messages in a dozen Slavic tongues were being tattooed on bare upper lips over which the operatives then grew mustaches, to be shaved off only by authorized crypto officers and skin then grafted over the messages by the Firms' plastic surgeons . . . their lips were palimpsests of secret flesh, scarred and unnaturally white, by which they all knew each other.

- Who said this?

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Share a memory from when you were in 7th grade. (I may be asking questions like this frequently for the next month or two; novel-fodder).

Alumas 19, 31.

EXPERIMENT: My weeks have been too busy this month for a daily update (even one this brief) every day... so until things settle down a bit I'm going to experiment with posting on the weekends too. Just FYI.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Sinaia.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
List all of the countries you've been to. If we get a few replies, I'll bet we can come up with quite a list!

Alumas 17, 31.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -



What is this?

More to the point:

What is wrong with it?

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Have you ever seen a riot? Do tell...

Concept: My Cosmo Dogood Blurb

Check out this short article I wrote for Bookish.us:

The Decline and Fall of Cosmo Dogood's Urban Almanac.

Concept: Tuesday Funk #14

Today!

Details at the Tuesday Funk Website.

Alumas 16, 31.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -

"What? Are we to put difference of party tactics before the desperate needs of the workers? ... While countless women and children are breaking their hearts and ruining their bodies in long days of toil, we are fighting one another. Shame upon us!"

Who said this?

I'm posting this one again, because I'd really like someone to take a stab at it.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -

Offer up a quote of you own.

Alumas 15, 31.

- NEWS OF THE WEEK -
Family Sees Image of Michael Jackson in Tree Stump.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Throw some interesting news my way.

Alumas 12, 31.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Cluj.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
What do you wish zoos would/could do, that they currently do not?