Janis Joplin article

This is an article about Janis Joplin by Ellen Willis, an author I don't know but who is clearly awesome and also apparently just died. She shows sympathy for Janis without ignoring her faults. The political arguments are clearly stated and not overly dogmatic. Also it's incredibly well written.

The article is included with a forgettable introduction by a salon staffer here

Magical thinking

I was told yesterday in earnest that if I'm wearing a hat outside I shouldn't take it off, because as my head cools it'll make me catch a cold. I tried explaining that I was too hot, and that anyway it takes a virus to get a cold, but no one would listen.

Sadie Cove Shower

For the night's entertainment I have decided to take a hot shower. My water heater's out and the landlady, who very well may have taken two hundred pounds from me, won't fix it.
I'm boiling water in two big pans. Much like in a Western when someone's having a baby. The plan is to use the 2-bucket approach: one pan of hot water, a spout and an empty bucket. The water is mixed in the empty pan and drizzled over one's head. The whole process is highly time consuming and possibly best described as a bath, but then the water is falling over the head in a showerlike process, and isn't it really the process that's key to the distinction? I mean, we're not animals, are we?
The whole process of boiling water and showering takes 45 minutes. I can run a load of clothes through the washing machine in the time it takes for the water to boil. If I had a third (working) burner, I could make coffee.

NaNoWriMo

I've signed up as a participant in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I can't figure out how to put the logo on my page, so any advice would be appreciated.

Bush makes babies cry

In the face of lowering recruitment numbers, President Bush has begun kidnapping and forcibly conscripting America's infants.