Talking Points

* Trader Joe's NYC!

* William Corbett Tonight at Cue: 511 West 25th St. 7 PM. Last time I crashed the Cue I wore a Bush mask to Charles North's reading. What a hit that schtick was! How will I top it?

* Antonio Davis jumps in the stands during the Knicks loss to the Bulls and gets ejected. I think you should get to visit your wife once during the game, no big deal. I also think you should get to pound on one fan per game with your forearm.

* My last Soft Skull Press rant? Why such good quality on the David Lehman sestina carwreck at the expense of great books by young poets? Was anyone clamoring for a dopey sestina comic book? Could you at least have put something on the spine of Jen Benka's book? It gets swallowed up on the shelves. Meanwhile there's a face out of the Lehman & Whoever's Excellent Adventure that *doesn't seem to be selling down at all*. This "fiercely independent" press has always seemed to be more impressed with starfucking than in putting out smart, great books. Any yokel with a guitar gets a book of poems, step right up. Meanwhile the real fiercely independents do it with a lot less static. When Lehman finally meets St. Peter I want some video. "You charged kids $35,000 to hang out with YOU???" I hope David Lehman someday answers for all this nonsense: night of the living graduate student, hands pounding and scraping down his bay windows, 30-somethings ready to piss on the man's exposed brain.

* Osama wants a truce. Do it. Draw a big line on the earth--you guys stay over there, we'll stay over here. No problem. We'll throw in some virgins for good luck.

* By the way, exactly what country will France lob nuclear missiles at if there's a terrorist attack there? Saudi Arabia? Pass the red wine.

* Why aren't there better google images of the Where's the Beef Lady? WTF???