You've heard of trainwrecks in the mountains
Sometimes there's shipwrecks on the sea


Olive Ayhen, Aesthetics of Pollution, 1996

* From Harper's February 2009:

-- Year that the U.S. stock market first regained its 1929 pre-crash peak: 1954

-- Percentage of U.S. school districts that have banned bake sales due to anti-obesity regulations: 29

-- Estimated total value in December 2007 of the family fortune of Thomas Friedman's wife: $3,500,000,000

-- Percentage change in the value of that fortune since then: -97

-- Percentage of unfaithful female multimillionaires who say they plan to spend less on their paramours this year: 15

-- Percentage of unfaithful male multimillionaires who say this: 82

-- Standard hourly rate at Manhattan's Liberty Inn, whose slogan is "Your Rendezvous for Romance": $30

-- Percentage discount it was offering first-time visitors last December: 50

* Inaugural newspaper covers.

* Charles Potts discusses and writes a poem about Merle Haggard.

* New blog to keep an eye on: klimbalan.

* The Caribbean play Solly's (11th & U, wdc) Friday. Early show: doors @ 6:30 (the caribbean likely to hit the stage around 8). with Mittenfields and Mariage Blanc (from Pittsburgh, opening).

* "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." -- Barack Obama, January 21, 2009