Yikes! Whether it’s a computer crash or a plane crash, any number that police radio operators use to refer to a suicide attempt is usually bad news.

Wade agreed that the bag was clearly dangerous, so we filled it with salmon bones and threw it in the incinerator. When it comes to 801, it pays to be cautious.

That’s Sean Thomas’s eleven-word sentence from Kissing England that won last year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award. And here’s an award-winning excerpt from Christopher Hart’s second novel, Rescue Me.

“Her hand is moving away from my knee and heading north. Heading unnervingly and with a steely will towards the pole ... Ever northward moves her hand, while she smiles languorously at my right ear. And when she reaches the north pole, I think in wonder and terror—she will surely want to pitch her tent.”

Although I almost always dislike any arts-related contests, I think the Bad Sex in Fiction Award is undeniably brilliant. It’s just like Richard Le Gallienne said, “You can’t fake it. Bad writing is a gift.”

Although I’ve enjoyed some of Disney’s animations, for some reason I can’t help but associate Disney’s good work with Disney’s bad behavior. And that’s unusual. A lot of my favorite artists weren’t very nice people; some were downright despicable. At least I think that’s the case; I’ve successfully preserved my ignorance. After all, there’s not much good art around, and I suspect if I limited my aesthetic tastes to good art by good people, I’d go to bed hungry every night.

Have a miserable birthday, Walt.

Despite my abhorrence of violence, I had to appreciate one of the staff member’s observations.

“Here we must teach cookery,” said senior lecturer Gary Sheffield, “not recipes.”

Cookery, not recipes. I like that, Nevertheless, I still smell napalm.

“Beautiful? Plain? Who cares?” she asked. “Handsome or ugly doesn’t matter for long; after a few years one gets used to both.”

I liked Evelyn’s theory. Having said that, I couldn’t help but recall that none of Evelyn’s relationships have lasted for more than a year. Empirical evidence may or may not be overrated.

It looks like I’m not alone.

Dewhurst is a candidate for lieutenant governor, and his ads feature a mas macho soldier standing in front of a giant American flag. The ad has generated no small amount of controversy, though. The soldier in the question is a German soldier in a Luftwaffe uniform.

Who’s the bigger fool: the idiot that came up with the image, or the politician who approved it? That’s a tough call.

Drinking alcohol in the morning provided a pleasant surprise. My learned friends and I calculated that one drink a bit before noon was equivalent to a couple drinks after noon, or three drinks in the evening, or four late-night drinks. We thought about that for a while, had some more mimosas, then thought about something else.

I’ve never met a cat that I didn’t like, except for perhaps Evil Tahoe. Having said that, Escher and Mylar are particularly fine cats. (Although I think it goes without saying that Escher and Mylar are Maine Coon cats, I’ll say it anyway: they’re Maine Coon cats.)

After dinner, we retired to the rumpus room to talk about human embryos and the like. As we chatted, I played with Escher and Mylar. I must have made the wrong move, because one of the feisty cats ripped open one of my fingers with her impressively sharp claws.

Blood everywhere.

“Would you like some alcohol?” Mary asked.

“It’s just a little cut,” I replied. “It should heal just fine by itself.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Mary explained. “Would you like another beer?”

I like Mary a lot. The tiny kitty cut healed quickly, and painlessly.