MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

God bless us everyone, and I do mean everyone!!

Thought For The Week-A Short Manifesto Of Sorts For Writers

Writers are weird. We're dysfunctional and insecure. We're childish and wise. Occasionally brilliant. We're stray cats, and we have the blues.

--Joe Donnelly,
Deputy Editor, L.A. Weekly

No Lame Duck Here

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be sadistic, and I consider myself a nonviolent person by nature, but this video footage of the Iraqi journalist hurling his shoes at George Bush made my day and had me laughing throughout the day today every time I thought of it. It also speaks volumes of how Bush is perceived, not just in the Middle East, but around the world.

Words To Live By

I think that if you're a creative person, you should just go about your business, do your work and not care about how it's received. I never read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too. Not that I don't care about success. I do, but only because it lets me do what I want. I was always prepared for success but that means that I have to be prepared for failure too.

I have an ego, I have ideas, I want to be articulate, to communicate but in my own way. People who say they create only for themselves and don't care if they are published...I hate to hear talk like that. If it's good, it's too good not to share. That's the way I feel about my work. So I'll keep on communicating, but only my way."

--Shel Silverstein, from Publishers Weekly, February 24, 1975