“I’ll Have the Molly Hatchet”: Heavy Metal and Hamburgers, Together at Last (They Were Never That Far Aprt)

“I’ll Have the Molly Hatchet”: Heavy Metal and Hamburgers, Together at Last (They Were Never That Far Aprt)

Yeah, two beefy guys with a megaphone and a big truck: Enter, Grill ‘Em All!

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“Happy Ending” by Fleur Adcock

“Happy Ending” by Fleur Adcock

After they had not made love
she pulled the sheet up over her eyes
until he was buttoning his shirt:
not shyness for their bodies—those
they had willingly displayed—but a frail
endeavour to apologise.
Later, though, drawn together by
a distaste for such “untidy ends”
they agreed to meet again; whereupon
they giggled, reminisced, held hands
as though what they had made was love—
and not [...]

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E-Verse Picks the Top 25 Most Interesting Wikipedia Articles

E-Verse Picks the Top 25 Most Interesting Wikipedia Articles

25. New York Conspiracy of 1741 (Question to ponder: why do the Salem Witch Trials, which happened 50 years earlier, in a town of much smaller population, and which resulted in far fewer deaths, get so much attention, while this event, which happened in the major population center, even then, of New York City, and [...]

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Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 14

Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 14

14.    “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)” by Peter Sarstedt: Originally on the soundtrack for Hotel Chevalier, a short film Wes Anderson added before festival screenings of The Darjeeling Limited. For me the story in the song has taken on a life of its own. Frankly, it’s more cinematic and appealing than the movie. [...]

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“Everyone’s Mobilized” by Rebecca Wolff

“Everyone’s Mobilized” by Rebecca Wolff

Everyone’s invited! “If your whirlpool
has ceased to pull its weight,
it is enough to enter the Grand Park
and reclaim a louche point
on its perimeter. You know
it is circular and there is no corner,
hence this cannot be a story
of redemption or deep failure.”
A blood-letting, by any
stretch of the imagination.
The brunt—the thrust—as though a character,
three dimensional as a [...]

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A Message from E-Verser Theresa

A Message from E-Verser Theresa

Hey Folks,
We’ve all seen the news and the extent of the damage from the earthquakes in Haiti, the heartbreaking appeals for help. People who were miraculously rescued from collapsed buildings last week are now dying of infections that cost just a few dollars to treat. I’ve thought about supporting the relief efforts by donating to [...]

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Top Five Books of Celebrity Poetry

Top Five Books of Celebrity Poetry

They might not have much going for them as poets, but boy can they move units. I worked for News America Publishing, HarperCollins’ parent company, when Jewel’s book of poetry, Night Without Armor (the title really says it all) was published. The first printing in hardcover was 800,000 (for those who don’t know much about [...]

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Top Five Books Recently Published by Dead Authors

Top Five Books Recently Published by Dead Authors

5. This is Walter by David Foster Wallace

4. Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut

3. The Suicide Run by William Styron
2. My Father’s Tears and Other Stories by John Updike

1. The Original of Laura, by Vladimir Nabokov. Sure, he declined to publish it during his lifetime, but hey, he’d wanted Lolita destroyed, too.

Extra: Pirate Latitudes [...]

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Top Five Women in Shakespeare Plays Who are Wrongly Accused

Top Five Women in Shakespeare Plays Who are Wrongly Accused

5. Hermione in Winter’s Tale: accused by her crazy husband of unfaithfulness.

4. Hero in Much Ado About Nothing: accused by her tricked fiance of having sex the night before their wedding.

3. Desdemona in Othello: accused by her tricked husband of unfaithfulness.

2. Cordelia in King Lear: accused by her narcissistic father of not loving him.

1. Titania [...]

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Paranoia

Paranoia

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“Or thy shoe I wish to be, / That thou might’st but tread on me”: Recently Unearthed Photograph of the Band Anacreon Featuring Ernest Hilbert on Bass

“Or thy shoe I wish to be, / That thou might’st but tread on me”: Recently Unearthed Photograph of the Band Anacreon Featuring Ernest Hilbert on Bass

Ah, yes. “Sated with thy summer feast, / Thou retir’st to endless rest” wrote Anacreon, the Greek poet of wine and song. Anacreon also loaned his name to the 1980s heavy metal band Anacreon, featuring a 16-year-old Ernest Hilbert on bass. The bass itself (later stripped of its white enamel and painted black, to appear [...]

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“January 1939″ by Dylan Thomas

“January 1939″ by Dylan Thomas

Because the pleasure-bird whistles after the hot wires,
Shall the blind horse sing sweeter?
Convenient bird and beast lie lodged to suffer
The supper and knives of a mood.
In the sniffed and poured snow on the tip of the tongue of the year
That clouts the spittle like bubbles with broken rooms,
An enamoured man alone by the twigs of [...]

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“Winter Promises” by Marge Piercy

“Winter Promises” by Marge Piercy

Tomatoes rosy as perfect baby’s buttocks,
eggplants glossy as waxed fenders,
purple neon flawless glistening
peppers, pole beans fecund and fast
growing as Jack’s Viagra-sped stalk,
big as truck tire zinnias that mildew
will never wilt, roses weighing down
a bush never touched by black spot,
brave little fruit trees shouldering up
their spotless ornaments of glass fruit:
I lie on the couch under a [...]

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Top Five Differences Between Gen. X and Gen. Y College Student Experiences

Top Five Differences Between Gen. X and Gen. Y College Student Experiences

Note: your Gen X top five writer (Bethany) has returned to college to get a graduate degree, almost a generation after being an undergrad before.
5. There are no more blackboards. Just whiteboards. I suppose it’s because of chalk dust. Otherwise, it’s harder to read.

4. A large percentage of course materials, “handouts”, professor communications, are on-line.

3. [...]

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“The Burning Bush” by Jericho Brown

“The Burning Bush” by Jericho Brown

Lizard’s shade turned torch, what thorns I bore
Nomadic shepherds clipped. Still,
I’ve stood, a soldier listening for the word,
Attack, a prophet praying any ember be spoken
Through me in this desert full of fugitives.
Now, I have a voice. Entered, I am lit.
Remember me for this sprouting fire,
For the lash of flaming tongues that lick
But do not swallow [...]

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Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 15

Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 15

“Fuck The People” by The Kills: You can surely understand this sentiment, particularly when you’re at the post office just before Christmas. This power duo, Alison Mosshart with guitarist Jamie Hince, is cool, moody, sexy, angry, noirish, punk, and, again, [...]

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Top Five Movies in Which the Crazy People are Really the Sane Ones, and It’s the Sane Ones Who are Really Crazy

Top Five Movies in Which the Crazy People are Really the Sane Ones, and It’s the Sane Ones Who are Really Crazy

5. Marat/Sade (1967)

4. Benny and Joon (1993)

3. Changeling (1980)

2. King of Hearts (1996)

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

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Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 16

Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 16

16.    “I Love the Unknown” by Clem Snide: Eef Barzelay (love that name), the animating force behind the alt-rock/alt-country band Clem Snide, really nailed it with this fine song. It is comic, yearning, and wise. You know what he’s talking about when he sings “they asked him, / ‘hey, where’s this bus going?’ / and [...]

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Bethany Brings Us Top Five Recent Movies in which an Old Man is Revitalized by a Young Woman

Bethany Brings Us Top Five Recent Movies in which an Old Man is Revitalized by a Young Woman

5. Crazy Heart: Jeff Bridges (60) plays has-been or never-was musician/truck driver who meets Maggie Gyllenhaal (32) and is revitalized.

4. Nine: Daniel Day-Lewis (52) plays creatively blocked director who seeks inspiration in the arms of a number of hot young chicks, e.g. his wife (34), Penelope Cruz (35), Nicole Kidman (42), Kate Hudson (30), Fergie [...]

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“To a Locomotive in Winter” by Walt Whitman

“To a Locomotive in Winter” by Walt Whitman

Thee for my recitative!
Thee in the driving storm, even as now—the snow—the winter-day declining;
Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing, and thy beat convulsive;
Thy black cylindric body, golden brass, and silvery steel;
Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating, shuttling at thy sides;
Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar—now tapering in the distance;
Thy great [...]

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