Juvenile Hooded Merganser

The bird is a juvenile hooded merganser perched on a birch branch. The picture was taken on the Saco River in Fryeburg, Maine.

By Nancy Little

Introducing: Nancy Little

Nancy has a cat named Tiger Lily, is a geologist, a photographer, and is married to my friend Trevor (I was at the wedding). She is starting grad school in January 2009 at Simmons College where she will be studying Library Science.

Links:
Her blog: (Insert Title Here)

The Popeye Cycle Canto IV: The Later Years

Broken headed, Broken hearted
Damaged toilets
An anchor to remind him of his profession
A pipe and a can of spinach for good times
Forearms like a tree trunk
The subject of cartoons and dirty jokes

In the rooms that smell of old sex and shattered dreams
You await your slender odd-headed girl still fighting your beefy, bearded nemesis
Your heart did not let go
Your heart did not let go

I light a cigarette and call for you
            Popeye
            Popeye
The room spins wildly from too much wine
and I think I hear an echo
then a talented voice in the distance
            Popeye,
I'm Popeye the sailor man

Yes, I believe you are


-Dimitri Oram

Introducing: Dimitri Oram

Dimitri and I play board games together, in fact met playing hearts one night on the courthouse steps downtown, and hang out sometimes. I have seen him act quite well in a play, jump around like a bizarre crazed monkey at a party (many times in one evening, to my great amusement), dive of the dock saying goofy things from old tv shows (we were both 30+ at the time) and also seen his articles and occasionally poem. On the surface he appears serious and deep, but then you get to know him better. A very goofy point of reference we have in common is that crappy movie "Meatballs", which we watched together a couple of years ago because we had both seen it as adolescents, and of course loved the tackiness of it.

Introducing: Attaboy

From his website:

Attaboy is an internationally shown artist, creator and toy designer whose work is seen in galleries, museums, toy boutiques, magazines (Newsweek, Wired, Juxtapoz, Clutter, Playtimes, etc.), calendars, and art books. After years of creating, recreating, and inventing award-winning and best selling toys for Hasbro and Milton Bradley, he went AWOL to create his own art and licensing studio. His art work has been licensed to Dark Horse, Last GAsp, Tower Records, Kiss, the Dixie Chicks, Sony, and many more.

From me:

Attaboy is a friend of mine who used to live in Northampton. He seemed to be perpetually creating stuff, writing, drawing, inventing toys, and large crowds used to come watch him energetically perform his poetry at Fire & Water. He worked for Milton Bradley, and gave me a free copy of "Don't Break the Ice" which he was working on the re-release of. I brought that game out at a few parties, and me and some friends invented a new Zen way to play, where you don't aim carefully, but after sitting for a moment, vigorously swing the little plastic hammer without looking too much, and see what happens.

Links:
Attaboy's Yumfactory