Like many of you, I suspect, I received my nomination, my email begging, nay, pleading with me to allow the good folks at poetry.com to grace two pages of their upcoming book, sure to be a classic of the field, read by literature students for generations to come, Who's Who in Poetry.

And to think, this wonderful opportunity was dearly relegated to the "delete all" button as it somehow found its way into my "Junk Mail" folder! Alas!

Perhaps I shall write a poem about this!

Calloo! Callay!
Frajabulous Day!
I got a fine email from
The folks at poetry.com!
Oh what an opportunity
To write eloquent poetry!
To grace the pages of Who's Who
Is just what I was born to do!
I don't know what I would have thunk
If I'd hit the button, "Delete Junk"
But now all poets will know me
I'll carry this book as ID
They'll know I am a poemist zealot
Would that it fit inside my wallet.

Bloggin' in Baghdad: I don't know how much this has already been talked about, but it looks like freedom of speech is finding its way into the town that was the epitome of tyranny and oppression.

Iraq the Model is a fascinating blog, and links to other interesting Iraqi blogs and soldier blogs.

The Real Must See TV: In case you've given up on TV, and haven't seen the commercials, you may want to know that Monday night, ABC is showing A Wrinkle In Time.

Tuesday Night, CBS will air, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited, a retrospective/reunion show for the best show ever to air on TV, bar none.

Because You Really Care About My Magic Career: Did a birthday party last night, and had a lot of fun. For those who care about such things, this was my set:

Sponge Balls
Cups and Balls
Thumbcuffs
Hyrum, the Hilarious Haunted Hank
Cut & Restored Rope
Sucker Torn & Restored Napkin
Sid Fleischman's "You, Too, Can Saw a Girl in Half"
David Regal's "Letter Perfect."

It went well. I cut my thumb (but not off) and the final letter in the birthday party boy's name didn't show up, but for my first paid show it didn't go too bad.

The kids are at that fun age where they're not really interested in applauding. When you hit a trick, they just sit there, silent, but their eyes get about as big around as quarters.

And I did hear one, "Now that was real magic."

Another interesting point--on Gazzo's "Cups and Balls" tape, he talks about how to make it look like the fruit produced at the end is too big for the cup. I thought this was kind of a stretch--what audience member pays that much attention?--but yes, one kid did say, "It doesn't look like it would fit." Thank you, Gazzo.

I had a good time.

A Quiet Place to Work: If you're tired of coffeehouses, and you're looking for a quiet, calm place to settle in and do some writing in a personalized workspace, you can go here and rent one at five dollars an hour.

Or, you could try a library.

24: I finally watched the first season, which means I am now only 2 seasons behind. I wanted to see this ever since I first saw the preview for it in a movie theatre years ago. The idea for it intrigued me, and I thought it looked great. Then a good friend of mine was an extra in it--he was one of the people at CTU in season one and a "civilian advisor to the President" in season two.

So it's about time I got around to watching it.

What did I think? About the first half, when we had no idea what was going on, was fantastic. Some of the best TV I've ever seen.

Then, when they started explaining things, my credulity started getting strained a little. As my wife pointed out, when the final twist came, it wasn't one of those Sixth Sense sort of twists (Of course! Now it all makes sense!), instead, it was one of those soap opera kind of twists (Say what? Where did that come from?!?!).

Speaking of soap operas, the low point was when the oh-so-cliche "amnesia dialogue" showed up, lifted in whole cloth from a thousand other movies and TV shows, I just about lost it.

But overall, I still liked it, and still recommend it.

Now on to season two.

Ebooks: Yes, I also use Fictionwise for Ebooks. I like their micropay feature. It means that sometimes when I'm broke, I can still buy stuff.

Maybe I should buy a book on the wisdom of buying stuff when you're broke.

Another great comic? Mitch Hedberg. He's the guy that comes across as slightly stoned, with one-liners that would probably seem really deep if you were stoned. If you're sober, they're just funny.

I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a girl who'd be real mad if she heard me say that.

I like escalators, because escalators can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

I wish I could play little league now. I'd be way better than before.

At my hotel room, my friend came over and asked to use the phone. I said "Certainly." He said "Do I need to dial 9?" I say "Yeah. Especially if it's in the number. You can try four and five back to back real quick."

You know when they have a fishing show on TV? They catch the fish and then let it go. They don't want to eat the fish, they just want to make it late for something.

I played golf ... I'm not very good at golf. I did not get a hole in one, but I did hit a guy, and that's way more satisfying... You're supposed to yell "Fore!" but I was too busy mumbing, "There's no way that's gonna hit him."

I opened-up a yogurt, underneath the lid it said, "Please try again." because they were having a contest that I was unaware of. I thought maybe I opened the yogurt wrong. ...Or maybe Yoplait was trying to inspire me... "Come on Mitchell, don't give up!" An inspirational message from your friends at Yoplait, fruit on the bottom, hope on top.

I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.

More here.

Yeah, I know we're talking about the lack of women on the Comedy Central 100 funniest stand ups of all time, but I'm actually protesting the lack of John Mendoza. Here's some good lines.

I went skydiving the other day with a blind man. You ever hear a German Shepherd scream at thirty thousand feet?

Fear is being stuck in traffic after you just had 2 cups of coffee and a bran muffin.

If you're cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you see okay?

I was a shepherd once ... but I got fired because I always fell asleep during inventory.

Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?

Sir Damon: I don't know if I've linked to this before, but I like this article on plot by Damon Knight.