The Worst Poem Ever

Further proof that John Updike is a dirty old man (just in case you still needed convincing): This "brutally dismissive" review of The Best Erotic Poems in The New York Times (via Begley the Bookie) calls Updike's poem "Fellatio," "perhaps the worst poem ever written on any subject" -- which, for a writer known for his "seeming inability to write badly" is really quite a feat. Begley goes on to cite the poem in its entirety, so I won't. If you're curious and need a laugh, click here! If you'd prefer to soberly mourn the collapse of literature and the descent of literary studies into "trendiness itself, trendism, the desperate search for anything sexy," click here instead.

Eustace Edited Interests in His Profile

If I had the time (and the software) I would cook up a great entry to The New Yorker's Eustace Tilley contest. Having neither, I merely made a half-hearted stab at creativity (otherwise known as a Facebook account). Here's the screengrab in sepia, cropped and copy-pasted to compensate for the fact that I lack the follow-through on this project to make a "John Updike" profile so that Eustace's mini-feed could announce that Eustace and John are now friends and that John has tagged Eustace in an album and that "It's complicated" between Eustace and John.  Ah well, you get the idea. Ha, ha.