By the dollar carts outside the Strand I lay down and wept

- Rain today. Used homemade barometer outside apartment window to make sure it was going to be serious, then put on coat (canvas, Salvation Army, $20) and caught train downtown. Arrived at Strand just as rainfall got heavy. Dollar carts just beginning to get soaked. Paced until I saw the cart with the Hempel copy (Reasons to Live, $1). When I arced my body across it to let the drops crash against me I felt the old pain in my back; bear it, bear it. Bear it for Literature. Went home depressed.

- Figure out how to satirize reality television. Midwestern Anhedonic Idol? Take Ibuprofin, consider it