I keep almost posting. That is, I keep thinking of oh!-so-clever things to say, and then I start to type it and it goes away or reveals itself to not be clever at all. Hmm. Someone said something about lurkers which, for reasons beyond the realm of my knowledge, made me feel guilty for not saying anything. Which in turn made me feel guilty for the arrogance of thinking that all 1400 of you would be remotely interested in what I might say in the first place. I live in New York now (I think I mentioned it before). One of the first things anyone told me about living here was "You'll be amazed at the kind of chicks you can pull here." Actually, I may have read that in an article. Anyway, I was thinking about it, and it occurred to me that in a city of nearly 9 million people, someone's /bound/ to like your stuff. Though so far, they're not doing a good job of making it obvious. Or obvious enough, anyway. I've been reading Go Ask Alice www.goaskalice.columbia.edu all day. It's such a great website. A year or two ago, the American Library Association got all sorts of flak for linking to it from their website for teens. I haven't been reading lately. This is (apparently) scandalous behavior for a librarian. The truth of the matter is this: I've never been a particularly voracious reader. This is due largely to my exceptionally short span of attention (got a short little span of attention and oh, my nights are so long), in tandem with an ever-present, nagging suspicion that I could be doing something more interesting. This latter affects more than just reading, but it is particularly taxing to such, because of reading's concentration-intensive nature. My library's clientele, my co-workers, my family, and damn near everyone I've ever told that I'm a librarian cannot reconcile that reality with my reluctance (not reluctance--reluctance comes loaded with mules on short ropes and children spitting mashed peas; rather, inability) to read for extended periods, as though somehow one has to incorporate the contents of every book in one's vicinity in order to be comforted by their presence. The state of my memory is such that I'd probably not remember much of them anyway. Laura Llew (isn't she swell?) said something or other about us boys who occupy the non-skinny category. Thanks, hon. We need the compliments. Strapping is an interesting adjective (and, in fact, also quite interesting as a verb, though awfully dull as a noun). I'm not sure I know what it means. You'd have to ask someone else if I'm strapping or not, but thanks for the good press all the same, LL. On that note, I gotta go. adieu will porter +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+