I'm not a great housekeeper, partly because I don't throw things out. I look for ever-deeper corners in various closets in which to hide things away.

But I'm thinking of getting the fuck out of this place, and have begun a glacial-paced cleanup. Earth will likely be the same temperature as Venus by the time I'm finished, but I'm making some progress.

Last weekend I was delighted to find an old comic book: "A Marvel Super Special! Stan Lee Presents The Beatles Story."

It's actually quite excellent. It's a neatly-illustrated, historically accurate account of The Beatles rise, reign, and eventual breakup.

Of course, it's still a Marvel comic, which accounts for lines like...

"Patti, you were RIGHT. The Maharishi has the ANSWER we're looking for. I've got to tell the OTHERS as soon as possible!"

...George Harrison discovers spirituality with the same revelatory urgency as Spiderman deducing that The Lizard is in fact the respected Dr. Connors.

Hazy sunset.

"Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still..."


Mickey Spillane.