Kid Tetris

I was walking through my garden the other day - actually, I was walking down the sidewalk on 1st Avenue by the adult bookstores and check cashing/payday loan emporia - and the day was a hot bright blue. Seeing the garden in full bloom - actually, I was in a thin alley behind a hotel that cuts 2 minutes off my walk to work and it sometimes has the vague ammonia smell that makes your ears perk up and you think "URINE?!?" - makes one think of the possibility of linearity and narrative existing naturally, that it's not just a human construction, that the carefully manicured plants and small garden-dwelling animals and purple neon "XXX" signs and shadowed dumpster spilling Thai food onto the concrete is really hinting at a sweeping, all-encompassing story.

Being taken by a feeling of jealousy when you think of another person being around other people, talking to other people, etc. - what is that exactly? It's a form of a crush, but it's a little different. So there needs to be a classification system. The kind of crush you have on a celebrity or someone in a lecture-sized class is different from the jealousy thing. Those are different from writing someone's name all over a notebook during class. And none of those can really be compared to building a shrine based on precepts common to folk religions.

I've started cooking with tomatoes. So I think I'm growing up. Properly seasoned tomatoes baking have risen way up on my list of favorite smells. Also, I hate the Kikkoman commercial where the woman says "Kids... dinner!" and it echoes unnaturally. But I love 'I'm With Busey.' It makes me wish I had a mentor like Gary Busey.

Baseball teams that have red, white and blue in their uniforms: Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals (more their road uniforms than home) and the Dodgers, because their home uniforms have the number in red on the front. You used to be able to include the Angels, but not anymore.

The names of the Cardinals' minor league affiliates: Memphis Redbirds, Tennessee Smokies, Palm Beach Cardinals, Peoria Chiefs, New Jersey Cardinals, Johnson City Cardinals. Does that seem a little 'heavy handed' to you?

A brief article on the Art-O-Mat at Reason.