Kucinich the Kingmaker

This Associated Press story, picked up in Miami and lots of other markets, probably won't appear in our PD. But we thought you'd still like to know that Dennis K., who's finally conceding the race for the nomination is over, nevertheless finds himself sitting in the cat bird seat, in a position to be courted by JFK II (John Kerry, of course), who really needs Ohio (and if you're a Dem who needs Ohio, you really need Cuyahoga County). Perhaps he can negotiate a deal for his endorsement, in exchange for a promise to become Secretary of Defense in a Kerry administration, after which he can rename it the Department of Peace...

Could You Pass This Math Test? Do spend a moment and test yourself. Heck, if you do poorly, who'll know?

Ever-Evocative Fresh Air. Last night on Fresh Air, NPR's Terry Gross once again elicited a wonderfully vivid literary riff from a soft-spoken fellow who has written a new memoir about his time studying at the foot of a couple of famous beat poets. The book title, "When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School," speaks for itself. The author recounted how one of the faculty members, poet Alan Ginsberg, had an "almost Proustian sense of observation" about the world, and taught the young guy that "you should write as you think--a sort of shapeliness of the mind." We'll soon be taking up a collection to send our three favorite Cleveland coolio beat poets, George, Steve and Niko, to this school...