FEELIN' OPTIMISTIC?

Yours truly appears in this story about the never-ending, perpetual optimism machine of America:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-16-optimistic-decade-americans_N.htm

BUSTER, R.I.P., 1994-2010

I don't do this often, but in this case I will. Our cat, Buster, passed away last night in his sleep. I got him when I lived alone in New Jersey in 1995 (he was one year old, or so the guess went). He had been being fed by a man with Alzheimer's who kept forgetting that he had to feed the twelve cats that hung around his house. Buster was taken to a shelter, where I adopted him. He was a very cool cat, more friendly than most, the constant hunter for a lap to sit on. My wife and kid came to love him immensely, for good reason. In any case, his death prompted me to search out a poem that I used to love by Charles Bukowski (I'm not usually a fan). I link to the poem here. Those lines about the influence of Celine and all are just fantastic. And so in memory of Buster:

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/10781-Charles-Bukowski-The-History-Of-One-Tough-Motherfucker-wbr-

MORE ON JIMMY...

Here's a recent interview done about "What the Heck?":

http://www.rorotoko.com/

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

A longer essay in which I describe my experience of reading Going Rogue by the lady who's now at Fox and who knows absolutely nothing about everything... Palinology in Mattson form.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=323

FOR THOSE WHO READ DISSENT...

I have a review of Morris Dickstein's recent book about Depression-era culture.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=2042

THE LEFT AT WAR...

Here's a recent review I did of Michael Berube's book on the left at war. You might have to scroll down a bit to get to the actual review.

http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/016_04/4694

I'll Never go back to... Georgia, well, actually

I'll be coming to Atlanta, GA and the Carter Center to speak about "What the Heck..." with some highly esteemed historians. Here's an announcement:

http://carter.convio.net/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100261