By: David Elzey,
on 4/8/2009
Pranks, Tricks & Challenges to Amuse & Annoy Your Friendswritten and drawn by master tricksterSam BartlettWorkman 2008While I recognize that April is National Poetry Month it also happens to be the month that begins with one of my favorite non-holiday holidays: April Fool's Day. Is there anything more delicious than planning and pulling off that perfect prank, that preposterous practical joke?
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By: Matthew Cheney,
on 10/5/2008
So, as I do every few days, I was reading Ron Silliman's blog, and his latest post was about an intriguing online book of nearly 4,000 pages of poetry by nearly 4,000 poets. Wow, I thought, what a huge undertaking -- what a massive organizational nightmare! It must have been put together by somebody with a lot of connections!
And then in the list of names, I noticed various people I knew. But I hadn't heard anything about this project. Why do my friends hide things from me? I thought. Are they ashamed that they have started writing and publishing poetry?
And then I got to the bottom of Ron Silliman's post:
No, the quirkiest thing about Issue 1 is going to be that, if it includes your name – and, hey, it probably does – you have no memory of having written that text, nor of submitting it to Issue 1. Or, as Ed Baker put it so elegantly in the comments stream to For Godot,And then I took another look. And lo, there was my name. Huh. I had been included after all! And I hadn't done anything!I DIDN’T FUCKING WRITE THIS GARBAGE!
FriskingNow, it's entirely possible that another Matthew Cheney wrote this. I know that my name is not unique. (In fact, my Big Uncle Dick, hiding out in his undisclosed location, named his 13th clone "Matthew". Perhaps that's the author.) It's just that, given some of the other names on the list, I'd be really surprised if another Matthew Cheney were associated with such a group. I'd be happy to know that he was. I could blame all the various things I wish I hadn't written on him.
Like golden dews
Matthew Cheney
David, What about age level? Is this something I can put in the Children's Room? I can think of many a child who would enjoy something like this, but I'm not getting a good sense of whether or not it would be appropriate.
Age level is an excellent point, and I probably should have noted that.I'm going to have to nix the idea of the children's room only because there are a number of stunts that have "adults only" warnings that are clearly winks to teens. There is a disclaimer up front about the contents being "for reading enjoyment" and for that I would say this book works best at the teen level.It's too bad, now
Well, you know, I'd rather find out from you than an irate parent calling me about the whole burning-down-the-house thing. That's always so uncomfortable. I'm going to recommend it to our teen librarian, though.