BitchBuzz: Are We Getting Nicer?

Well now, don't go getting your hopes up: it's just my latest column --

Is the World Becoming Nicer? (Probably not)

People around the world watched and cheered as the Chilean miners were freed, one by one, from their underground prison. I was surprised to find my friends, normally hard-hearted cynics, dabbing away tears as they watched this "miracle," this "triumph of the human spirit." No, let's not get distracted by the fact that the miners had their pay docked for not working, because it's possible that this emotional tide is the sign of a cultural sea change.

After all, as BitchBuzz's own Rebecca Thompson reported, our favourite grumbling misanthrope pin-up, Charlie Brooker has given notice on his bitch-fest Screen Burn, the better to embrace marital bliss and pumping our babies in the suburbs (Sob! No!). And spanky gossipist extraordinaire, Perez Hilton has sworn to turn over a newer, kinder leaf as well, asking for absolution upon the altar of Ellen, the Archbishop of Nice. As I write this, Facebook and Twitter are a sea of purple in honor of GLAAD's Spirit Day "to show support for the teens who took their lives because of anti-LGBT bullying."

Are we getting nicer?

Read more: http://news.bitchbuzz.com/is-the-world-becoming-nicer-probably-not.html#ixzz131OcIapg

I'm doing my best to fight off a cold that tried to start yesterday. Not sure if I've been successful, but I keep drinking liquids and soup (semi-liquid?). Just when I was beginning to feel as if I were getting caught up -- there's not time to be sick!

Publication: The Last Ant

My short humour piece "The Last Ant" is up at Wild Violet, the literary magazine that also published the even more esoteric piece "Corrections to the Rules of Fimble Fowl (for 3 players or 4)," the semi-true/semi-autobiographical piece "Me and Margery Kempe" and the MLA-inspired flash fiction story "Wixey" (bonus points for identifying the words swiped from Nabokov). Alert readers who are also Peter Cook fans may notice a theme throughout my pseudo-journalistic essay on the now extinct sub-species of ant.

I had a fabulous time yesterday in Northampton with my wonderful collaborator, the Queen of Everything. We had a delicious lunch at the Lhasa Café with my colleague May and wandered around the main drag, stopping in at galleries and for food and bevvie refueling, including at a coffee shop, The Yellow Sofa, that neither of us had stopped in before and which we found quite lovely. We had an editorial meeting for the journal of The Women's League of Ale Drinkers with the glamourous Vicky Squid in Union Station, laying out our plans not only for this issue, but for the future -- many dreams lie ahead for us to make manifest!

And yes, I did get the story on the wombat fortune (thank you all) -- but where's mine?!

BitchBuzz: Sic Semper Baconis

Hola from New Orleans! Of course I need to let you all know that my latest piece for BitchBuzz is up and it's all bacony goodness.

Down here at PCA things are jumping. We had a long day getting here, but we had plenty of time to catch up with Miss Wendy and check into our room before the first set of panels. A little Abita and dinner at the Palace Cafe later, I think we're all ready to sack out due to the unaccustomed early start.

With luck, tomorrow brings Pat and Petunia's!