Roy Blount, Jr. writes: Whenever I hear a new hit song these days I wonder, is anybody getting any simple pleasure, or pain, out of life? Everything’s jacked up to a level of ecstasy or outrage people couldn’t live with if they knew what they were feeling. In country music, it used to be that the performers’ hair was unreal but their songs were down to earth. Now their hair looks more or less natural but their songs are bouffant wigs.
From last year, a thread about Blount's latest book: After forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print or electronic, except greeting cards, Roy Blount Jr. still can’t get over his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the juju, the sonic and kinetic energies of letters and their combinations. Blount does not prescribe proper English. The franchise he claims is “over the counter” and concentrates more on questions such as these: Did you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince?
Back to Blount on Cowboy Jack Clement: Maybe the Recession will bring us back to basics. “Whatever may be wrong with the world,” Clement has said, “at least it has some good things to eat.”
Recently, Tim wrote: In my attempt to find some meaning in life I've taken to reading lots of food blogs.
Calvin Trillin: It has become possible to eat in Singapore for days at a time without ever entering a conventional restaurant.
Tim again: Calvin Trillin is a food writing god.
Jack, Johnny, and something only pigs can do | 
