It's the summer of Thomas Bernhard (and yes, it has been a bit depressing )

No matter what he said, he always turned out to have said something libelous, but strictly speaking, you might say that everything he could say about this weird country, with its extremes of inhumanity and irresponsibility all on the increase as they were, could be considered a so-called libel...

~The Lime Works by Thomas Bernhard

- The Elegant Variation has an interesting post up on revisions and Fitzgerald.

- I enjoyed this week's New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs.

The Hawk and the Mouse

A clever mouse is sunning himself in Battery Park, when a hawk swoops down and seizes him in her talons. Whistling through the air, the mouse warns the hawk not to eat him. “Why shouldn’t I?” says the hawk. “Don’t you know,” says the mouse, “that mice are loaded with trans fats?” Alarmed, the hawk releases the mouse and flies away. Several days later, the hawk happens upon an old owl devouring a less fortunate mouse. “Stop!” cries the hawk. “Don’t you know those things are loaded with trans fats?” The owl stops eating and says, “What are you, an idiot?”

Moral: You just can’t argue with libertarians.

- Chris Onstad, creator of Achewood, is interviewed over at The Onion A.V. Club.

- Well, I just felt like it had been awhile since I got a post up. Some pieces of mine are forthcoming from Quarter After Eight, Word Riot and elsewhere. So check back soon... or something.