Let this be a lesson to me: the day after I posted a pic of Pam Anderson, I lost two subscribers. What's up with that? Not enough talk about books? Not enough self-involved discussion of my own small foibles and turn-ons? Not enough literature on this heeeere lit-rary site?

Well so what? Literature is not supposed to be some unapproachable art for only the elite of society (at least, not in my view). Literature is supposed to reflect life, inform it, add to it. You should gain something from reading, even if that is only a little escape or entertainment. And sometimes, people, you need a little Pam Anderson and you don't even know it! Didn't she write a novel, after all? So there.

Yesterday my buddy Colin Berry and I presented at a writing class our friend Marianne teaches at CCAC. The class was full of students ages 17-19, most of them about to enter college. They're an arty bunch, with well-ripped t-shirts, ear-plugs and cool colored hair, the kind of kid I believed myself to be and was attracted to in high school( I, in baby-doll dresses and wildly colored tights) . They were very receptive and full of questions and I enjoyed myself, but I also confess (take no offense, kids!) that I never felt more relieved not to be 18 years old any longer! In fact, I feel relieved not to be 28, even. The thing about being 18 is that most kids don't really need full guidance any longer, and yet, at the same time, they're free-floating; the world is full of questions. Colin put it well when he said, "Most of the things they need to know, I can't answer for them. They just have to live it."

In other non-literary musings, I've become addicted to two new sites thanks to Gayle Brandeis for mentioning them at her blog, for my daily dose of humor, drawn from real life. Check them out for yourself. My personal favorite of the day:

Woman on cell: "Sometimes the most spiritual fucking thing to do is punch somebody in the face."

--33rd St & 31st Ave, Astoria
Overheard by: Wade

Overheard in New York
Overheard in the Office