TUMBLED GLASS Creeping toward completion. Four more poems added to the other site tonight.

TUMBLED GLASS Make that 10 poems. I got a spurt of productivity this evening before heading out to dinner. Read on, read on.

TUMBLED GLASS I've finally settled on a simple layout for the poetry site, and it's up and running. Only five of about 100 pieces have been posted, but I think they're all good ones. Modest me. Still, I'd love to hear what thoughts are being had if anyone meanders over to browse them.

PROJECT ACOUSTIC KITTY "In a project known as "Acoustic Kitty," the Directorate of Science and Technology sought to train a surgically altered cat, wired with transmitting and control devices, to become a mobile, eavesdropping platform. In its first test, the cat was run over by a taxi." Scroll down to Document #27 in this file from George Washington University's National Security Archive. Browse the site for less amusing, but equally interesting declassified documents from the Cold War and beyond.

IN MORDER'S SHADOW, INDEED In which the "Secret Diaries" of the Fellowship of the Rings is published. I'm sure this would be less amusing if I counted to 10 before posting. Here's an excerpt from Boromir's diary: "Frodo dropped Ring today. Picked it up, but Aragorn made me give it back. Arrogant bastard. Wonder how he'd feel with Horn of Gondor shoved right up his.." Well.

WHICH BUFFY GIRL ARE YOU? My greatest nightmare has come true; I just discovered that I am the key to the universe. Or a frightened 16-year-old girl who doesn't really exist but my vampire-slaying sister still treats me nice. Take the Buffy Girl quiz and discover your inner buffness. Guys, like me, will need to speak honestly about their waifish figures and their taste in clothes.

MY GREATEST FEAR IS NOW PUBLIC The Boondocks, America's funniest comic (think Bloom County takin' it to the streets) hits on the nightmare of every well-informed conspiricist (I'm retired from that game, by the way). If you act today, you'll see what I mean; otherwise, you'll land on the strip for whichever day you are existing in, which will still be amusing. Then click on the calendar below the strip to see the April 12 episode.

HUSKER HU? Bob Mould has a new release out. Bob who? That's what I'm guessing most of you are thinking. The musical wunderkind who kicked off a whole new trend in aggressive punk-pop with Husker Du in the 80s, that's who. Here's a rocker who not only has staying power, but has evolved as he went bald and got a little saggy in the tummy. This Baltimore City Paper article/review puts Mould and his work into perspective.

WHAT'S HOT IS COLD Iceland, the global groove scene's next best hope? Well, sure. And if you live within spitting distance of Baltimore or New York, you can catch a cheap flight to the rocky atoll on hipster Icelandair (what other airline offers weekend get-aways to see The Strokes?). At any rate, the icelandculture.com site has a fresh take on a country that didn't even allow beer until just recently. Obviously, the influx of new beverage choices has altered Iceland's view of itself.

LEST WE DESPAIR TOO MUCH David Ignatius, business columnist for the Washington Post with experience in the Middle East, turns his gaze toward Qatar, a tiny speck of sand with some redeeming qualities. Ignatius points to Qatar as an example of a Middle Eastern country that is seeking to modernize, forge alliances with the West and avoid the instability that so often seems an inherent part of being Arab. In this piece he doesn't dig deep into the nuances of the place, but these days it's nice to read about one or two spots in the region taking the road less traveled. Time will tell if it's a road worth traveling.

POKING THE MAN WITH A PULITZER Like so many articles in recent weeks, this piece in CounterPunch winds up underexplaining things, but John Chuckman does a good surface sweep of NYTimes' Thomas Friedman's latest writing on Israel and suicide bombers and scores a few solid hits. I think key among the points I'd mark with a check is that while suicide attacks might be a strategy for a handful of people in charge of coordinating and driving them, for the young men and women who wind up sacrificing themselves and other, more innocent people, there are few concrete reasons for their actions beyond hopelessness and despair. It's wrongheaded and disingenuous to write these kids off simply as fanatics, and it's foolish and dangerous to think that there will be fewer despairing kids in Palestine when Israel finally pulls out of the new layer of rubble that has been created in the West Bank. Whether or not you believe Israel's actions over the past two weeks are good or bad, you can't truly believe they have enhanced goodwill and security for either Israel or Palestine.

HARRISON HIGGINS IS AN AMAZING CRAFTSMAN and a good friend, so of course I'm going to tell everyone to visit his new website. It tells his story, and the story of his business, which is the design and production of fine furniture. And even if you don't want termite-attracting maple bookcases stinking up your home, it's an attractive site for attractive people. And I think you're pretty damned handsome.

THE LOVELY SCOUT NIBLETT I guess instead of P.S. I need to say Pre-S, since I'm referring to something already posted (below) but not yet read. Anyhoo, others say she sounds like Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall). Here's Scout's official record label site. La la la.

SCOUT NIBLETT "SWEET HEART FEVER" "The beguiling Scout Niblett of Nottingham, England, is a somebody who is worth getting to know." That's what this tidy review of her and her new CD say, and I think it's pretty spot-on, as the Brits say. I got this for my birthday last month, and it soothed my whacked-out nerves when I was utterly convinced I would die on my trans-Atlantic flight. Even Vivaldi can't make that claim. Only days later, I read "To Kill A Mockingbird," featuring the equally heartwrenching character named Scout and it all made sense.

GET YOUR PAWS OFF MY PEEPS! And drag your lame Easter obsessed self over to the Just Born website and send someone you love an e-Peep. Sounds racy, doesn't it? If only. But apparently the JustBorn marshmallow crew is a squishy wholesome bunch.

A REASON TO WRITE OBITUARIES Damn if I don't have to point to Andrew Sullivan once again for sending me in the direction of Britain's Daily Telegraph to take a gander of an amazingly clever obituary written for a man who, as Sullivan points out, did nothing more than die. And drink a lot, apparently.

GRAHAM MASON, the journalist who has died aged 59, was in the 1980s the drunkest man in the Coach and Horses, the pub in Soho where, in the half century after the Second World War, a tragicomedy was played out nightly by its regulars... In a couple of hours one evening in February 1988 he had loud altercations with John Hurt ("You're just a bad actor"); with a law writer nicknamed The Red Baron, who was later murdered ("You know I don't like you. Go away and leave me alone."); and with Jeffrey Bernard (who stood up and shook him by the lapels). Michael Heath often featured Mason in his strip-cartoon The Regulars. In one episode he is shown apologising for being so rude the night before: "You see, I was sober."'

It's not often these days that you find interesting obituaries in the paper. Makes me think I should take to the bottle. Or start writing obituaries again.

SILK, SOY AND THE STEPPES Get your calendar out and plan a trip to Washington, D.C., for the 2002 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This year's program follows the Silk Road through Asia, Europe and the America's, exploring the cultural connections that were created by old trade routes. This looks a hell of a lot more interesting than the 2000 festival, which focused on the Vikings. Running in late June and early July, for those who schedule their lives.

ALAS, POOR GEORGE The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz does his usual good job of surveying the media landscape and painting a fun picture. As I said earlier, lots of balls in the air, though as Kurtz points out there are many more than just the Middle East. Why the Democrats aren't doing any sort of reasonable job of making hay while the sun is finally shining through the "cracks and fissures" I just don't know. Of course, they haven't actually done a good job of that since, oh... about 1965.

'It's like one of those old Lucille Ball skits, where she frantically tries to stop a half-dozen pots from boiling over on the stove. Oil prices are rising, and Saddam says he'll turn off the spigot. The administration's post-Enron plan for pension reform is being denounced by critics who say it favors highly paid workers. Governors say Bush's welfare plan would hurt their already successful state programs. The Hill wants to break up his INS and its Keystone Kops bureaucracy. The budget surplus has evaporated, and the Dems are naturally blaming it on Bush. Social Security reform and Medicare prescription drugs seem a faint echo of the 2000 campaign. The president was largely insulated – and practically levitated in the polls – when he was smashing the Taliban. But now the usual cracks and fissures of American politics are coming to the fore.'

SHARON IS A MEANIEHEAD A good overview piece in the Washington Post that covers Sharon's continued tightrope walk, a growing unease inside the Administration that he knows how to be anything but tough, and questions about the possibility of increased friction between Sharon and the Bush team.

'Israel's continued defiance of President Bush's demand for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities and towns is eroding support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon inside the White House, administration sources said yesterday. After months of steadfast backing of Sharon by the Bush administration, senior White House aides are beginning to express doubts about whether the Israeli leader can be a long-term partner in achieving the administration's goals in the Middle East.'

It goes on to look at the continued high-level of support Israel has in Congress, which in my mind raises some interesting questions about how the White House's Middle East policy is going to play on the Hill. If Bush has to bolster his position among moderate Arabs at the expense of warm relations with Sharon's government, and congressional leaders stay firm with Israel... The price you pay for having so many diplomatic balls in the air.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKING ON TINA'S DOOR In spite of himself, Andrew Sullivan is winning me over. Sort of. This on-target jab in the eye, gives Tina Brown (Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Talk) a good, intelligent tongue-lashing for participating (if not inspiring) a decade that turned journalism and critical writing into the loud, egregious cult of celebrity that still murmurs on in most mediums. What a wretched world... when you actually have to hunt to find good, critical writing. I'm going to go make taffy.

I FEEL BETTER ALREADY, SORT OF William Christison ranks as THE SMARTEST FORMER CIA employee of the week. Well, okay, I'm just excited to finally see someone summarize things in a clear way. Here he is on the root causes of terrorism: "I have six root causes on my list, Four are major issues in the Middle East, and two are more global in scope. On the Middle East, I'd include the Israel-Palestine issue, the continued bomings of and sanctions on Iraq, the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, and the anger of many Arabs and Muslims with their own authoritarian and often corrupt governments. My two global issues are the U.S. drive to spread its own hegemony and its own version of unregulated, freemarket globalization worldwide, and (2) the very kind of war the U.S. now wages, On the globalization issue, poverty is THE main factor," he says in this Washington Post online discussion. See the below links for more on the Global Hegemony Shopping Experience coming to a mega-mall in a village near you. I guess this means that pragmatism is okay when I agree with it. Would someone please fix the world already?

The Guardian's Cohen with a smart little essay on American global strategy. "America divides to control," he writes, pointing to the recently leaked Pentagon Defense Planning Guide as good source material for anyone interested in why the U.S. does what it does. "Strategery," as the President is wont to say. Keep Korea divided to prevent the rise of Japan as a regional power; stay in the Middle East to keep Iraq or Iran or from dominating. This is a good complement to the piece you posted over the weekend by Blair's foreign policy man on why the world should be happy that we still have empires. In case you're wondering, I'm developing a distaste for pragmatists. The Administration is starting to make me squeamish and paranoid. Starting... well, still.

The Queen Mum was quite the trickster, according to Princes William and Harry.

'She saw Ali G click his fingers and say "Respec", and Harry and I showed her what to do. After three goes she had it. Later that day, we were all in the dining room, having Christmas lunch, when she tried it out.' His brother Harry, who is currently on holiday from Eton, said: 'It was the end of the meal, and she stood up and said, "Darling, lunch was marvellous - respec", and clicked her fingers.'

Respec, indeed, Mum. We hardly knew ya.

Why Pippi Longstocking is a Great Book The link says it all. The Brunching Shuttlecocks site delivers again (remember the Alanis Lyric Generator?) with some revealing excerpts from Astrid Lindgren's classic book. Astrid, everyone knows, passed away recently; her funeral brought Denmark to a standstill.

This piece by David Newman in The Jerusalem Post takes Israel to task for a general unwillingness to understand how military action in the Palestinian territories presents the risk of making Israel a pariah state, and that not all world opinion cannot be explained away with charges of anti-Semitism. "No amount of newspeak or closure of the territories can change these basic facts and any attempt to argue otherwise only blackens our image throughout the world," he writes. Unfortunately, polarization continues and disillusionment grows. An online poll in the same paper shows 87% of 17,000 respondants think Powell will leave the Middle East without a ceasefire agreement.

Imagine the jolt my sense of irony received when I discovered that a group of Civil War veterans signed up for a tour of duty with an Egyptian caliph and waged war on the Ethiopians in the 1880s. Then I found the diary of one of the former Confederates online and my amusement was complete. I've yet to delve into it, but now I have a yen to travel to Addis Ababa and find out what these lunatics were doing.

Snapshot piece from the Post about concerns that a new front may be opening on the Israeli-Lebanon border. Overall, it looks like Syria (by repositioning its troops away from the line) and even Hezbollah (strategically allowing Israel to over-respond to its attacks?) are heeding U.S. warnings and plain common sense, but if you want an opportunity for the curent situation to become truly disruptive, look no farther than southern Lebanon.

What's your ominosity quotient?It is clear from this quiz that I am one of the least ominous people I know. I suspect it's the abstract method of questioning.

BBC News' take on what seems to be a bit of an economic turnaround in Baghdad.I wonder if Iraq will be able to continue to play out the situation in Israel to its advantage, derailing the bubbling desire in some Administration pockets for decisive military action. Given the current military build-up activity in Bahrain, Qatar and possibly Yemen, this might be one the U.S. decides to go alone.

Checking on Civilian Casualties (washingtonpost.com)In which the Post's perceptive military/defense analyst hits the dirt trails of Afghanistan to ask a very good question: How many civilians were killed by U.S. forces? His answer is more thoughtful than most, and tries to provide some perspective that is often lacking both in Defense briefings and in the press. If you brave this not-too-long piece, read through to the end. Arkin was on this mission for Human Rights Watch, and has done this sort of work both in Iraq and Yugoslavia; he's got a good head, and an honest eye.

This interview with Christopher Hitchens came to my attention via Andrew Sullivan's website and struck me as being pretty timely and thoughtful with a dose of indignation and critique often lacking in the world of academia. My takeaway: mixing intellectualism with real world events can sometimes be a mess. I don't think I'll jump too firmly on his coat-tails, but I do plan to re-read this after I eat an orange.