Weekend Randomness

A bit of what's happening around my house and bouncing around my head.

• The Cat Census in the House of Pho has increased 300%. A stray that for some time has used our back yard as a way station dropped a litter of three about six weeks ago. This week we realized that she, in keeping with the stereotypical mores of alley cats, has ditched her kittens and wandered off for parts unknown. Happily we've already found a home for one -- and at six weeks, kittens are relatively easy to adopt out, being at maximum adorability. Still we are wrestling with what to name the one we are keeping and how to not keep the other one.
  
• It's John Ettore's bailliwick, but I submit the following for Best Lede of the Month. Its from a piece about the growing obsession in lit circles with young, physically appealing authors in the online lit mag The Phoenix:

When I saw Marisha Pessl in the New York Times Style Section, meticulously posed on an antique chair wearing a pair of buttery leather high heels and a coy smile, I cringed.

The whole lede paragraph sings, not least because the author maintains a literary tone while using the phrase "fuck me boots."

• It was so very generous of Tim Russo to share his thoughts about how we all should be blogging, but I do hope he overcomes that self-esteem problem someday.
• Speaking of BSB snipefests, this and this were just unfortunate. I've had my issues with Jerid, but he's pretty amenable to an off-line approach. And BNN bragging is just unseemly.
• Jerid's post mentioned a few factors that go into the BNN influence rankings. I would add to the list traffic (which is total traffic, not just Ohio traffic) and what the blog's rank was the previous week. That's my guess, based on watching the rankings of the Pages.
• By the way, I've found a great way to attract traffic -- don't post. I've been once-a-day slow all week as I try to get this class organized and my traffic has been about fifty to a hundred hits a day higher than usual. Of course today the bottom fell out, so probably it's not so much due to the slow posting as despite.

Now here it is, your Moment of Ten

1. "Concentration Moon," Mothers of Invention
2. "Something So Strong," Crowded House
3. "Fallback," Ollabelle
4. "All Down the Line," Rolling Stones
5. "Reprive," Ani DiFranco
6. "Slow Leake," Lafayette Leake
7. "Nothing's News," Clint Black
8. "Six Silver Strings," B.B. King
9. "Wonderful," Everclear
10. "Lullabye," Concrete Blonde