Shameless self-promotage alert: I have a guest column in today's Ludic Log. (And if you're not reading the Ludic Log every day, what the hell is wrong with you, anyway? It's only one of the most consistently smart and funny sites on the whole damned World Global Interweb. And I'm not just saying that because of all the sweet, sweet guest columnist lucre I received.)

And for those of you wondering just what the hell that was all about, anyway, it's a scene from "Guttersnipe," my never to be finished novel about a wouldbe beatnik poet who likes bowling. (Ha, ha, funny pun there. I'm a genius.) It was intended to be a Bukowski parody of sorts, but I haven't read any Bukowski in six years, so I probably missed some of the nuances.