Al-Jimzeera Talking Points

* Another Grand Jury? Ca-Ching! Sign me up!

* The Academy of American Poets reading edition of "The Jim Behrle Show" will soon be on its way to CVS and then your screens. "The Jim Behrle Show" needs a better title. Maybe Moby can do a theme. I'll get back to you on that. Outgoing Chancellor Heather McHugh was all kinds of crazy. The low blow of the night came from her, from the podium."But *you* remember what the meek inherit: so few of my students do." And what has McHugh forgotten? Her students pay $35,000 to hang out with her. And without them she'd be sitting in a cubicle, like everybody else. Think about it, McHugh!! The rest is on the tape--coming soon to a laptop near you.

* In thinking about foetry and receiving messages from all over the place (and in wandering around the reading and wandering around the schmoozing last night) I can't help feeling some kind of compassion for all sides. The big time poets looked beseiged and maybe seasick in the froth of the audience turned reception. Hey, you tell me what that look was on C. K. Williams' face when he looked into my camera like it was a howitzer. The world of awards and books and universities and wine receptions is not a world I want to live in. I think of John Wieners (of course) and listen to "Acts of Youth." John thought poets were "vampiric." And I'm sure he thought *I* was. And maybe we are. Being a poet is to to put parts of your soul out there. And to think your soul is better and should defeat other people's souls: that's tricky business. Just because you survive the scrum doesn't mean you get into heaven. I saw 10 readers, 10 famous poets last night. At the end of the day, none of them will get everything they want from poetry, either. No one on Earth gets everything they want. And whether we pal (or joke) our way to the finish line, I think of the Wieners' line: "The poem does not lie to us. We lie under its law." I'm probably some phony like everybody else. Under poems, indivisible with no justice.

* This article is one of the single dumbest things I've read yet on the Manny Sweepstakes and on the future of the Mets. Manny may be adorable in a "look, he went to take a leak in the Green Monster in the middle of an inning" kind of way. And I love a good "Manny Being Manny" moment as much as the next guy. I'm just glad I don't have to experience them through the layer of bullshitosphere that surrounds the Sox and the radioactive WEEI exeprience. Remember: Manny has said he doesn't want to play for the Mets. Is the DAILY NEWS trying to raise the temperature on the Mets to *make a bad deal*? METS ARE DESPERATE! TAKE ANYTHING FROM THEM! THEY'RE GOING TO BE ON CABLE! Get a grip, Daily News. With a legitimate closer the Mets are already in the Wild Card race. They were in it to September 1st or so without Manny, with Beltran having a horrible year and with Braden Looper. Enough said. Mets fans want a winner. Manny's got all kinds of signs all over him that say BUYER BEWARE. He makes Stephon Marbury look like Michael Jordan. I'd like to see Manny here more than anybody. I'd rather see them pick up Javier Vasquez and Billy Wagner. And maybe a nifty glove at second. Paging Pokey Reese. I read the Post.

* By the way, Stephon Marbury should shut the fuck up. His game was *unleashed* last year and he was still about the 20th best guard in the league (and the Knicks got lottery tickets). Remember his fateful "I'm the best point guard in the league" speech that started the Knicks on a January & February nosedive? Do we need to do a point guards that are better than Marbury list? Nash, Kidd, Parker, Arenas, Francis, Iverson, Telfair for starters. Marbury is about where Gary Peyton is--except Gary Peyton wants to win a championship and is willing to sacrifice to get there and Marbury wants to score 45 points again. I'm not saying Brown is the greatest genius ever--I'd let you loose to score 45 so they could *trade you.* Hello Milwaukee Bucks! But what have you ever done except make teams *worse* Stephon? I mean, I love you because you're a punk. But please. Knicks Fans Know (tm): You're an Albatross.