Every Long-Suffering Wife's Secret Dream:
Flushing No-Good Husband Down the Toilet

Only this German woman appears to have literally done just that. We have just two words of reaction: good Lord.

Okay, on to some cheerier news. Glad to see our friend Suzanne D's Mac's Backs bookstore get some national publicity with a mention in this New York Times holiday roundup about how local stores support local authors. In this and a thousand other ways, Suzanne has been the backbone of the local writing community for as long as I can remember. In early December, she presided over a celebration marking the opening of the new downtown loft offices of the former Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland, which has just been renamed The Lit (a name change that the organization's own website is yet to reflect, but you know how that goes). Naturally, Suzanne was board chairman and guiding light on that, as well. For earlier mentions of Suzanne and her shop go here. For past items on the PWLGC go here.

Brain Tune-Up. Are you like me, in that you're sometimes haunted, other times challenged, by statistics about how little of our brain capacity most humans actually use? Reports tend to vary from 5% on up, but whatever the correct number might be, I'm forever thinking about how to do more with whatever gray matter I've been given. And if you're hitting the middle years (or older), you may also be thinking about just keeping what you've got as sharp as it's been. Anyway, wherever you're at on that continuum, you may find some food for thought on this interesting site. I found lots of gems buried here, and I hope you will too.

We Began With the Battle of the Sexes, & That's How We'll End. With this interesting Washington Post take on the different gender wiring behind the sexes' very different mental orientation when it comes to directions. A clash as ancient as the scriptures, but one that even Mapquest will never solve.