Saturday, January 22 (cont'd)

ART BREW'S DAILY: NEWS THAT STAYS NEWS. January 10 - March 19. In progress. Brew calls his book BREW'S NEWS: NEWS THAT ISN'T FIT FOR THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO PRINT, but 60 pages into the book he sees that that is too simplistic. They aren't "not fit to print" because of their content. They are not fit to print because of their form. Brew has found his form, the creative nonfiction bylined column novel, avec appendixes, mingled in. Ezra Pound said literature is news that stays news. On errands of life, Brew's columns end up in the Dead Letter Office. They are not fit to print. Oh, well. Brew publishes them at The Daily Bulletin. He is a contented online writer. He changes the name of his book to BREW'S NEWS: NEWS THAT STAYS NEWS, and names the pieces from p. 60 on "Brew's Literature." It might not be literature. But that's what Brew intends. Then he changes it to ART BREW'S DAILY: NEWS THAT STAYS NEWS. He calls the pieces from p. 60 on "Art Brew's Daily." By analogy with I. F. Stone's Weekly. LitVision Press asks to publish BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS. Brew asks Brian Hand to do the cover art. He writes "12 Short Reviews of BUKOWSKI NEVER DID THIS" and sends it to 3AM magazine, which accepts it, so he is an international writer. The Wines and Cheeses of England and France with Notes on Irish Whiskey.

Point and Shoot, Florida (YU)--Tsunami victims in Indonesia object to the propensity for fundamentalist Christian aid groups to proselytize for their faith, and make Muslims sing a hymn or recite a Bible verse to get a bowl of mealy-meal.

As a grant writer for a community behavioral health care center, Brew had the same concerns about having to compete in a shrinking pool of grant money with faith-based organizations--that is, with proselytizing fundamentalist Christian aid groups--for money to help Americans with mental illness, substance abuse, domestic, or sexual violence problems, which go up, during hard economic times, when the money pool shrinks. Not to mention birth control or family planning issues. Should the government pay religious organizations to spread what scientists would call falsehoods and superstition?

Get used to it.

President Bush won, fair and square, with a little help from his friends, and this is what the American people asked for.

Could Brew give an example?

Abstinence-only sex education is untrue and it doesn't work. Instead of preventing out of wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, it causes them.

Anybody who thinks celibacy outside marriage is a cultural norm for teenagers is living in a fantasy world. They are delusional. Barking mad.

They might as well believe in dousing, or Salem witch trials.

I got the flu in 1957,
and was in the base hospital
for a week. Of course, a flu shot
gave it to me, so I'd call that illness
iatrogenic. Whenever I take a pre-employment
physical I'm diagnosed with borderline hypertension,
and put on high blood pressure medication, which I take
until it's safe for me to stop. Against medical advice (AMA).
I had cataract surgery at the age of 62. I worked for 40 years,
and paid insurance in, through my job, for all that time, and didn't
use it, except for the eye operation. Now I have Medicare,
such as it is. When I die, they'll bury me, because if they don't,
I'll stink. I have asked to be cremated. If I get sick, I'll die.
I have lived a productive life, an authentic life, and that's more than
some can say. Whatever I didn't do it's too late now. Welcome to
The Ownership Society. Some experts say to die broke. But nobody says
to die in debt. I must have been the 10% that didn't get the word.
By the time I got my shit together I couldn't lift it.

Today is President Bush's Second Inaugural Address.
I keep thinking of the phrases "compassionate conservative,"
and "a uniter, not a divider," from the last one, four years ago.
Does the expression "jobless recovery" refresh your memory?
How about "corporate governance." Welfare for the military-industrial
complex and big business, tax cuts for millionaires...what about
the budget surplus? It's your money. Well, your budget deficit.
What a magic act that was. Now you see it, now you don't.
How long can he blame the mess he's made of things on Clinton?
The Salem Witchcraft Trials went off with great éclat,
like the cattle show Thoreau writes about in Walden.
Just after he speaks of bankruptcy and repudiation being
the springboards off of which our civilization vaults and turns
its somersets. The news is old ladies, gossiping at their tea.
Debbil crabs, debbil crabs, debbil crabs. The media, sharpening
their knives. Watergate, Irangate, and Monica Lewinski
whet their appetites for second-term resignations, firings,
and impeachments. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
The man of hubris earns his own comeuppance.

(YU)--President Bush said that the 2004 election was an accountability moment, and that he passed with flying colors, with a little help from his friends, and is now, like his friends, beyond accountability.

He only has four more years to assure his place in history, leave a legacy he can be proud of, and finish the job he was elected four years ago to do.

In 2000, when Bush campaigned, he pretended to be more moderate, centrist, and bipartisan than he really was. Only after he was elected did he reveal how far to the right his agenda fell. Still, he could not let the full magnolia hang out if he hoped to win a second term. Even as a war president.

Now, all restraints have been lifted. The opposition proved timid. Cowardly, even. They barely hit back.

The velvet glove will be peeled off. The iron fist is poised to strike. No more half-stepping.

It's their way or the highway.

At the ball tonight you can watch the playground bullies gloat, see the ball spiked in the end zone, and have your face rubbed in the ugly, pelvic-thrusting Victory Dance.

Moral values won.

Guns, gays, and God prevailed.

He talks to Bush, you know.

From: Jack Saunders
To: Britta Steiner Alexander
Subj: Query

Dear Britta Steiner Alexander:

Herein find a link to my CV, a list of the books of my stack, and a description of SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL: A CELEBRATION, OR, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY.

A stack is an unpublished, or underpublished shelf.

Would you like to see the manuscript?

You can imagine the difficulty of selling an unpublished, or underpublished shelf, once you've written it. Indeed, it's hard to sell a single volume of it, since each book is related to the one before it and the one after it in the catalog.

But they do stand by themselves, like a Travis McGee title stands by itself.

And my 250th book--without selling one to New York, Hollywood, or Boston--is special.

I keep thinking that one day I'll reach critical mass, and what could not be published will have to be.

In fact, I think SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL may be that book.

Jack Saunders
Garage Band Books
Box 10501
Panama City, FL 32404

p.s., My son Owen plays fiddle with David Davis and the Warrior River Boys and my son Balder plays mandolin with Dread Clampitt. They figure in the story as characters.