Sailor, Marines Killed in Attacks; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2006 – A sailor assigned to 3rd Naval Construction Regiment, two Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, and two Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died yesterday from injuries suffered due to enemy action in Iraq's Anbar province.
The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. 

Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of 13 servicemembers killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

-- Army 1st Lt. Amos C. R. Bock, 24, of New Madrid, Mo., died Oct. 23 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Bock was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. 

-- Army Spc. Carl A. Eason, 29, of Lovelady, Texas, died Oct. 23 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Eason was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. 

-- Marine Lance Cpl. Richard A. Buerstetta, 20, of Franklin, Tenn., and Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler R. Overstreet, 22, of Gallatin, Tenn., died Oct. 23 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. They were assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Nashville, Tenn. 

-- Navy Seaman Charles O. Sare, 23, of Hemet, Calif., died Oct. 23 from enemy action while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. Sare, a hospital corpsman, was assigned to Naval Ambulatory Care Center, Port Hueneme, Calif., and was serving with Multinational Corps Iraq. 

-- Army Maj. David G. Taylor, 37, of North Carolina, died Oct. 22 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Taylor is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. 

-- Army Sgt. Willsun M. Mock, 23, of Harper, Kan., died Oct. 22 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when an IED detonated near his vehicle. Mock was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany. 

-- Army Spc. Nathaniel A. Aguirre, 21, of Carrollton, Texas, and Army Spc. Matthew W. Creed, 23, of Covina, Calif., died Oct. 22 in Baghdad of injuries suffered when their patrol came in contact with enemy forces. Both soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 

-- Marine Lance Cpl. Eric W. Herzberg, 20, of Severna Park, Md., died Oct. 21 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. 

-- Army Spc. Nicholas K. Rogers, 27, of Deltona, Fla., died Oct. 22 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when his patrol came in contact with enemy forces during combat operations. Rogers was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. 

-- Marine Pvt. Edwardo J. Lopez, 21, of Aurora, Ill., died Oct. 19 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. 

-- Army Staff Sgt. Ronald L. Paulsen, 53, of Vancouver, Wash., died on Oct. 17 in Tarmiya, Iraq, from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Paulsen was assigned to the Army Reserve's 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, Utica, N.Y.

Staff Sgt. Ronald L. Paulsen, 53, of Vancouver, Wash., died on Oct. 17 in Tarmiya, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Paulsen was assigned to the Army Reserve's 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, Utica, N.Y.

Four Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2006 – Four U.S. servicemembers were killed in Iraq over the last two days, and Defense Department officials have identified four other servicemembers who died in previous action.
A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier died early today when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle in central Baghdad, and two Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and a sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died due to enemy action in Iraq's Anbar province yesterday, military officials reported. 

Meanwhile, DoD has released the identities of four Marines who died in Oct. 21 combat in Anbar province: 

-- Lance Cpl. Clifford R. Collinsworth, 20, of Chelsea, Mich. 

-- Lance Cpl. Nathan R. Elrod, 20, of Salisbury, N.C. 

-- Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Manoukian, 22, of Lathrup Village, Mich. 

-- Cpl. Joshua C. Watkins, 25, of Jacksonville, Fla. 

Collinsworth, Elrod and Manoukian were assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Watkins was assigned to 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of four Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Clifford R. Collinsworth, 20, of Chelsea, Mich.
Lance Cpl. Nathan R. Elrod, 20, of Salisbury, N.C.
Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Manoukian, 22, of Lathrup Village, Mich.
Cpl. Joshua C. Watkins, 25, of Jacksonville, Fla.
These Marines died Oct. 21 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
Collinsworth, Elrod and Manoukian were assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Watkins was assigned to 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

1st Lt. Amos C. R. Bock, 24, of New Madrid, Mo., died on Oct. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Bock was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when their patrol came in contact with enemy forces. Both soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

Spc. Nathaniel A. Aguirre, 21, of Carrollton, Texas.

Spc. Matthew W. Creed, 23, of Covina, Calif.

Spc. Carl A. Eason, 29, of Lovelady, Texas, died Oct. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Eason was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

he Department of Defense announced today the death of two Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Richard A. Buerstetta, 20, of Franklin, Tenn.

Lance Cpl. Tyler R. Overstreet, 22, of Gallatin, Tenn.

Both Marines died Oct. 23 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. They were assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Nashville, Tenn.

Seaman Charles O. Sare, 23, of Hemet, Calif., died Oct. 23 from enemy action while conducting combat operations in the Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Sare, a Hospital Corpsman, was assigned to Naval Ambulatory Care Center, Port Hueneme, Calif. and was currently serving with Multi-National Corps - Iraq.

Spc. Nicholas K. Rogers, 27, of Deltona, Fla., died Oct. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when his patrol came in contact with enemy forces during combat operations. Rogers was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

Sgt. Willsun M. Mock, 23, of Harper, Kan., died Oct. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Mock was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.

Maj. David G. Taylor, 37, of North Carolina, died Oct. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Taylor is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

Sgt. Thomas M. Gilbert, 24, of Downers Grove, Ill., died Oct. 25 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Pfc. Donald S. Brown, 19, of Succasunna, N.J., died Oct. 25 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Pfc. Daniel B. Chaires, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., died Oct. 25 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Media with questions about this Marine can call the Hawaii public affairs office at (808) 257-8870.

Lance Cpl. Jonathan B. Thornsberry, 22, of McDowell, Ky., died Oct. 25 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Johnson City, Tenn.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Charles V. Komppa, 35, of Belgrade, Mont., died Oct. 25 from enemy action while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was serving with the 3rd Naval Construction Regiment, Multi-National Corps - Iraq, and was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 18, Detachment 0618 in Billings, Mont.

2nd Lt. Joshua L. Booth, 23, of Fiskdale, Mass., died Oct. 17 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Spc. Daniel W. Winegeart, 23, of Kountze, Texas, died Oct. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries sustained when his Light Medium Tactical Vehicle drove off an overpass. Winegeart was assigned to the 5th Group Support Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Ky.

This incident is under investigation.

Two Soldiers Die in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2006 – Two U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday in Iraq, military officials reported.
A soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, died from wounds suffered due to enemy action while operating in Anbar province. 

A 16th Military Police Brigade soldier was killed when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle he was riding in north of Balad. 

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of the next of kin. 

Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of a Marine and a soldier who were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

-- Marine 2nd Lt. Joshua L. Booth, 23, of Fiskdale, Mass., died Oct. 17 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. 

-- Army Staff Sgt. Garth D. Sizemore, 31, of Mount Sterling, Ky., died Oct. 17 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when his patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small-arms fire during combat operations. Sizemore was assigned to 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.

Staff Sgt. Garth D. Sizemore, 31, of Mount Sterling, Ky., died Oct. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when his patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations. Sizemore was assigned to 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.

Five Marines, Two Soldiers Die in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2006 – Five Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed
in Iraq as the result of enemy action over the past few days, military officials reported. 

* Three Marines assigned to Multinational Force West died Oct. 21 from 
enemy action while operating in Anbar province. 

* One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Oct. 21 of 
injuries suffered from enemy action while operating in Anbar province. 

* A Task Force Lightning soldier assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 
82nd Airborne Division, was killed Oct. 21 as a result of enemy action while 
conducting operations in Salah and Din provinces. Three other soldiers from 
the same unit were wounded as a result of the action. 

* A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier died at about 2:37 
a.m. Oct. 20 when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised 
explosive device in southwestern Baghdad. 

* One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Oct. 19 from 
enemy action while operating in Anbar province. 

The names of the deceased and wounded servicemembers are being withheld 
pending notification of next of kin. 

Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of 12 soldiers who 
were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

* Army 2nd Lt. Christopher E. Loudon, 23, of Brockport, Pa., Army Cpl. 
David M. Unger, 21, of Leavenworth, Kan., Army Cpl. Russell G. Culbertson 
III, 22, of Amity, Pa., and Army Spc. Joseph C. Dumas Jr., 25, of New 
Orleans died Oct. 18 in Baghdad of injuries suffered when an 
improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. The soldiers were 
assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th 
Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 

* Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel A. Brozovich, 42, of Greenville, Pa., 
died Oct. 18 in Ashraf, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised 
explosive device detonated near his armored security vehicle while on combat 
patrol. Brozovich was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 213th Air Defense 
Artillery, Spring City, Pa. 

* Army Spc. Jose R. Perez, 21, of Ontario, Calif., died Oct. 18 in 
Ramadi, Iraq, from injuries suffered from enemy small arms fire. Perez was 
assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat 
Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. 

* Army Staff Sgt. Ryan E. Haupt, 24, of Phoenix, Ariz., Army Sgt. 
Norman R. Taylor III, 21, of Blythe, Calif., and Army Pfc. Nathan J. Frigo, 
23, of Kokomo, Ind., died Oct. 17 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries suffered 
when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. The 
soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy 
Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. 

* Army Spc. Daniel W. Winegeart, 23, of Kountze, Texas, died Oct. 17 
in Baghdad from injuries sustained when his Light Medium Tactical 
Vehicle drove off an overpass. Winegeart was assigned to the 5th Group 
Support Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Ky. This 
incident is under investigation. 

* Army Sgt. Lester D. Baroncini Jr., 33, of Bakersfield, Calif., and 
Army Pfc. Stephen D. Bicknell, 19, of Prattville, Ala., died Oct. 15 in 
Samarra, Iraq, of injuries suffered when two land mines detonated near their 
Humvee. Both soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute 
Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort 
Bragg, N.C. 


Staff Sgt. Kevin M. Witte, 27, of Beardsley, Minn., died on Oct. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during a combat patrol.

Witte was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.


The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 17 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Ryan E. Haupt, 24, of Phoenix, Ariz.

Sgt. Norman R. Taylor III, 21, of Blythe, Calif.

Pfc. Nathan J. Frigo, 23, of Kokomo, Ind.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:

2nd Lt. Christopher E. Loudon, 23, of Brockport, Pa.

Cpl. David M. Unger, 21, of Leavenworth, Kan.

Cpl. Russell G. Culbertson III, 22, of Amity, Pa.

Spc. Joseph C. Dumas Jr., 25, of New Orleans.

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel A. Brozovich, 42, of Greenville, Pa., died Oct. 18 in Ashraf, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Armored Security Vehicle while on combat patrol. Brozovich was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 213th Air Defense Artillery, Spring City, Pa.

Spc. Jose R. Perez, 21, of Ontario, Calif., died Oct. 18 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, from injuries suffered from enemy small arms fire. Perez was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 15 in Samarra, Iraq, of injuries suffered when two land mines detonated near their HMMWV. Both soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Killed were:

Sgt. Lester D. Baroncini Jr., 33, of Bakersfield, Calif.

Pfc. Stephen D. Bicknell, 19, of Prattville, Ala.

new chris offutt piece up at Velocity

http://www.velocityweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061004/VELOCITY02/610040323/1066

part 2
http://www.velocityweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/VELOCITY02/610110408/1066

part 3
http://www.velocityweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/VELOCITY02/610180324/1066

you gotta wait till next week for the conclusion..

"The first flash of fiction arrives without words. It consists of a fixed image like a slide or closer still a freeze frame showing characters in a simple situation...." -- Mavis Gallant

"words"

tried to write up a reading I went to the other night & this is what came out instead...oh well.
WORDS
I shift the weight off my bad knee, leaning heavily against the cafeteria wall. A fat man sits on a tall red stool in front of me, blocking my view. Where the reader's face should be, there is only a square head, bushy red hair squashed by a cheap black yarmulke. The door next to me opens several times during the reading admitting a steady stream of students. I rest my heavy backpack against my boots and smooth my hands across the thick paint on the wall.
The dynamics in the room remind me of high school. There are the organizers - the whacky, wannabe hipster kids who run things; the hot blonde chick hanging out in the back whispering through every reading spreading gossip to anyone who'll listen; the dangerous guy with spiked hair and earrings, hanging out by the bar and glancing around to make sure he's being watched as a rotating group of women sits next to him basking in his presence; the impossibly maladjusted sitting with each other sipping bad red wine and pretending they don't care that no one cares they exist. I sit with no one. I'm standing against the wall at the back, thinking about going to the bar - there's beer here, why not have one? but the wall is smooth and hard and my back is sore, my knee is throbbing, and I can feel a cold coming on.
While I try to focus on the hopelessly bad poetry a woman with unfortunate hair and overlarge glasses is reading, I wonder if any of these people are happy, if they were popular in high school or even college. I wonder why that matters but we all know it does. We're all writers here - all outcasts on some level - too smart, too bookish, too drunk - this as a horribly thin girl wearing nothing but a dress made of scarves trips over a chair on her way to the bar for her fifth glass of wine. I marvel at the ugliness of her beige platforms and wonder how she makes it down the street in the morning or ever with shoes so tall and legs so thin. Perhaps she's a brilliant poet or a stellar wordsmith, but somehow, I think she's probably yet another pathetic post-modernist unable to string a sentence together any better than she can hold her cheap wine.
I think about why I don't want to talk to these people - people leave, they lie, they disappoint, they gossip and steal lovers, stories, and peace of mind. I think about where I'd rather be - in a house in Baltimore, drafty and creaking in the winter cold, lounging in the beat up corduroy lazyboy while sounds of crashing dishes and rattling pots come from the kitchen and then dinner on a tiny table, rickety chairs - spaghetti with marinara, one sad candle, a couple of beers, the light from the candle reflecting in his pale blue eyes. I shift my weight again and hug my backpack to me.
I can barely see the top of the head of the man standing at the podium. The words of the story flow over me - simple and true cutting through all the bullshit that has come before, all the hackneyed prose and melodramatic post-modern poetry but I can not see his face - the man who has written these words. The story is simple enough - love, lust, longing, marriage, insecurity, told with wit, humor, understated passion. And then it's done, he is done talking and I am standing alone in a room full of strangers, worse than the first day at a new school, worse than working a show on my own for a band I don't know, worse than waiting for a blind date in a bar full of people in love.
I watch the man walk away, carrying his book, his story close to his chest, his words pulled in away from the rest of us. He is tall, broad shoulders, he glances quickly at me - just someone standing near the door, that's all. His eyes are blue. I watch as he pushes the door open, watch as he walks away out into the hot, damp starless night.

pantoum

here's a really bad pantoum I wrote the other night while trying to watch baseball...

1. a. the River makes its inexorable way to the Sea
2. b. the past is irredeemable
3. c. the patterns of light and shadow
4. d. until the day slips into darkness

2.b. the past is irredeemable
5.e. casting shadows across the sun
4.d until the day slips into darkness
6.f. until the stars drop from the sky

5.e. casting shadows across the sun
3.c. the patterns of light and shadow
6.f. until the stars drop from the sky
1.a. the River makes its inexorable way to the Sea

tolstaya's "heavenly flame"

and another one for the Lit Seminar:

Tatyana Tolstaya's "Heavenly Flame" is a wonderful blend of poetry, sardonic humor and subtle (and at times not-so-subtle) commentary on society. Her deft prose and keen observations about the paradoxes of human nature give the story a universal resonance. Tolstaya exhibits a strength in characterization on many levels including the ability to both orchestrate the dynamic of a group of characters and to give the reader a deeply internal vision of an individual character - in this case, Korobeinikov, a man who is desperately lonely and eager for approval but loses his single daily hour of solace with friends at a nearby "dacha" when the newly arrived "sculptor" Dmitry Ilych tells the rest of the group a malicious lie about him. There are many aspects one could focus on in discussing Tolstaya's work - her deft use of irony, her brutally clear portraits of human frailty, and her poetic use of symbols, colors, and even place names to show the progression of the story and the transformation or in this case, moral descent of both Olga and the group.

The story starts with a cynical commentary on doctors and soon moves into a pleasant pastoral scene, "It's a nice walk, not hard, a couple of kilometers among hills, through a little birch forest. It's August; the birds aren't singing anymore, but it's pure bliss all the same. The weather's dry, the leaves are turning yellow and dropping off...". The importance of certain words and images introduced in this early passage will become evident later in the story - "the little birch forest," the leaves "turning yellow and dropping off," and the mushroom K. picks on the way to the dacha. It's only a mushroom but, "still a gift. An offering to the house." We're given a positive image of K.'s visit, "Here comes K - he's got a mushroom....everyone feels good, kind of peaceful, like in childhood: the sun shines serenely; the seasons slip by serenely; serenely, with no shouting or panic, autumn draws near. A nice man is coming, carrying a bit of nature. How sweet" [p. 78] We are further told that "they were glad to have him..." [p. 78]. This scene is in stark contrast to that presented on p. 84 "and from the woods comes that vile K., carrying his foul toadstool. Everyone already knows about his treachery, about the mark of Cain on him."

To focus on a single symbol in the story, that of the birch trees, we can see how the choice of a single word changes the resonance, the meaning of each scene showing both Olga's rejection of K. and K.'s loss of his single hour of happiness - the trees are first "a little birch forest" [p.77], "startled, white tree trunks" [p.81], and after Dmitry Ilich's lie, "severe, white tree trunks," an "unsheltering grove. The birch trunks are chilly" [p. 86] and finally, "the hospital-white birch trunks." If we have not already connected the white of the trees with the dreaded white of the sanatorium [p.86], here it is given to us in clear language.

The images of the flame, light and darkness appear throughout the story -
"the pale flame illuminates his yellowish face," "the lights have been turned out" "the black windowpanes" at the sanatorium, the "heavenly flame" on page 84 which is one of K's desperate attempts to entertain his "friends" with a story and because of Dmitry Ilich's lie, Olga thinks, "Your ulcer is a heavenly flame sent down on you as a punishment..." and in the final passage, Olga stands on the porch and watches K. in what we can assume is his final walk from the dacha to the sanatorium "the heavenly flame sweep blindly by, searching out its victim."

There is even the motif of the food - the mushroom which becomes a "foul toadstool," the tea and pound cake which is offered to the guests at the dacha in contrast with K.'s "piece of baked cheese pie, puddle of sour cream," and the "megahertz" which first appears as a lame joke from Olga's husband and is repeated throughout, including a more subtle reference while K. is sitting alone at the sanatorium, "listening closely to the mustard-hot pain somewhere inside him - to the pain that awakens with the darkness and drones, drones like a distant transformer..." [p. 80].

The story of Dolores (kidnapped by little green men) and the jealous husband and his switchblade is used to foreshadow Olga's infidelity - her husband says "just let her try; he'll sharpen his switchblade, too, he won't stand for any of these little men." Then at the bottom of page 80, suddenly we have "Dolores - that is, Olga Mikhailovna" in case we didn't get the parallel.

Olga's ridiculousness is shown in her "plans" for the "little green men," her comments that "it's only natural that people like her; she's considered pretty," her description of why Ilich is "an interesting man" "a sculptor" and his stories (which we're meant to contrast with K.'s stories) which Olga can't manage to iterate beyond a non-story about a headless monument and "well...stuff like that." Immediately, we're shown Dmitry Ilich as a poseur, "No, I'm not Byron, I'm something else," as if a limp, some bad poetry and visiting Greece "for a day and a half on a cruise," equates him with Byron. Olga's description of Dmitry serves both to paint him as ridiculous and shows Olga to be equally worthy of derision. All of this of course, is leading up to Dmitry's lie and betrayal of K. and his subsequent seduction of Olga. We are told that Dmitry "...'went camping' in Siberia for two years, as he puts it, not for any particular reason, naturally--but he doesn't hold a grudge, he believes in destiny and has a sense of humor." We're also told that he is "really a gorgeous man" and the following paragraph argues against this while also showing us Olga's obvious infatuation - "a slightly pockmarked face, yellow hawk eyes, and he wears a smock." He says to Olga, "I must sculpt you." The humor here is obvious.
Dmitry comes to visit (sans mushroom) and they put the kettle on and feed him pound cake. The only gift he brings are his stories and the lie he tells about Korobeinikov. As previously mentioned, as soon as the group has been told the lie, Korobeinikov becomes "vile" and his gift of the mushroom becomes a "foul toadstool." Without any question, the group has accepted Dmitry's story and "Everyone already knows about his (K.'s) treachery, about the mark of Cain on him." He has become a murderer. Olga states that, "She loves truth, what can you do, that's how she is" and yet, once she knows the truth, that her lover has lied out of spite or jealousy or simply mean-spiritedness, still she feels that "it's all over with!" that K. is "soiled" and finally "looks at K. with hatred." (p. 90) She thinks it would be easier if he would simply die, "Honestly, it would be better if he died." Her simple brutality in the story is a brilliant characterization of what is worst in all of us. Despite the humor, the brilliant irony, ultimately, "Heavenly Flame" is a brutal vision of our casual treatment of each other, our easy alliances, and our ultimate weakness and brutality when faced with death and our own mortality.


Additional thoughts on place names in "Heavenly Flame":

With a writer as deft as Tolstaya, each word, each place name brings with it levels of meaning adding to the overall whole. On page 79, K. tells a story about a flying saucer hovering over the city of Sverdlovsk. Yeltsin was born in a small village (Butka) in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. It was over Sverdlovsk that Gary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960 while on a reconnaissance mission. It was also in this area where the execution of Nicholas II & the Russian Imperial Family took place in July 1918. Perhaps, even more telling, on April 2, 1979, in the city of Sverdlovsk, there was an unusual anthrax outbreak which affected 94 people and killed at least 64 of them. The Soviet government claimed the deaths were caused by intestinal anthrax from tainted meat. However, officials in the Carter administration suspected the outbreak was caused by an accidental release of anthrax spores from a suspected Soviet biological weapons facility located in the city...It wasn't until 13 years later - 1992 - that President Boris Yeltsin admitted, without going into details, that the anthrax outbreak was the result of military activity at the facility...the anthrax airborne leak had been caused by workers at the facility who forgot to replace a filter in an exhaust system. The mistake was realized shortly after, but by then some anthrax spores were released. Alibekov (former 1st deputy chief for Biopreparat - the civilian part of the Soviet biological weapons program) says if the wind had been in the opposite direction that day - toward the city of Sverdlovsk - the death rate could have been in the hundreds of thousands.

Further on in the same scene on page 79, "someone" suggests that little green men would take people from somewhere like "Tyumen or the Matochkin Strait."

Tyumen: 2,144 km east of Moscow. The first Russian town in Siberia, founded in 1586. During WWII, Lenin's body was moved from Moscow to a disguised tomb at the Tyumen Agriculture Institute. Famous people born in Tyumen: Irving Berlin & Rasputin.

Matochkin Strait: covered with ice for most of the year...From 1963 to 1990 about 39 underground nuclear tests took place in a vast array of tunnels and shafts. After 2000, the Russians reactivated the test site by enlarging old tunnels & starting construction work. There are fishing settlements along the strait.

"the skies over Petrozavodsk" [p. 84] the city of Petrozavodsk was founded on 9/11/1703 as an iron foundry for Peter the Great, provided cannons for the Russo-Turkish Wars - in 1773, Catherine the Great named the foundry for Alexander Nevskty (patron saint of the region). In the town are statues of Peter I and Gavrila Derzhavin (Russian poet). There is also a birch copse, where the first church of Petrozavodsk was built in 1703. Nearby is a quarry of red and pink limestone which was used in construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral and Lenin Mausoleum. It is also home to "the oldest spa in Russia founded by Peter I in 1714. the name of the spa is Martsialnye Vody and means 'Waters of Mars'..."

"Berdichev bonesetter" [p.85] Perhaps the most important reference - Berdichev - in the Northern Ukraine, by the end of the 18th C, an important center of Hasidism - in 1861, the 2nd largest Jewish community in the Russian Empire. In early 1919, the Jews of Berdychiv became victims of a pogrom perpetrated by the Ukrainian army. The Soviet authorities closed or destroyed most of the town's synagogues. The Nazi invasion began in 1941, an "extermination" unit was set up in Berdychiv in early July 1941 and a Jewish ghetto was created. It was "liquidated" on October 5, 1941 and all of the inhabitants murdered (est. 38,536 people).
* "The Bones of Berdichev: the life and fate of Vasily Grossman" - prominent Soviet-era writer & journalist. Grossman's descriptions of ethnic cleansing in the Ukraine and Poland, the opening of Treblinka and Majdanek extermination camps were some of the first eyewitness accounts - as early as 1943 - of what later became known as the Holocaust. One of his articles was used at the Nuremberg Trials as a document for the prosecution. Grossman, originally an ardent supporter of the 1917 Revolution, became disillusioned with the state, his work was confiscated by the KGB under Krushchev and he was told that his "magnum opus" "Life and Fate" "would not be published for at least 200 years".
Grossman died in 1964 never knowing if his final works, "Life and Fate," and "Forever Flowing" would ever be published.
In one critical reference, it is stated that "Grossman is merciless in describing the dark corners of a human soul." The same, of course, can be said for Tolstaya.

& jane bowles for lit seminar

forgot to keep posting these after I'd written them...oh well.

Though she wrote only one novella, one short play, and fewer than a dozen short stories over a roughly twenty-year span from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s, Jane Bowles has long been regarded by critics as one of the premier stylists of her generation. Enlivened at unexpected moments by sexual exploration, mysticism, and flashes of dry wit, her prose is spare and her sensibility skews the world and hands it back to the reader afresh.

Her only novel, “Two Serious Ladies,” is a darkly comic experimental study peopled with sly characterizations of men and women, dissatisfied with the emptiness of their neat little lives. Focusing on the separate emergences of Miss Goering and Mrs. Copperfield from their affluent, airless lives in New York and Panama into a less defined but intense sexual and social maelstrom, Bowles creates worlds out of the unexpressed longings of her characters adrift in their own lives. It is as if they have a sense of purpose obsessively directing them towards or away from their own comfort.

The two ladies referenced in the novel’s title, Miss Goering and Mrs. Copperfield can be said in a way to be trying to “find themselves” at a time when women's roles were severely limited. Both rebel against patriarchy and the accepted idea of what a woman should be. The two women are acquainted but their journeys to self-discovery are very different. Christina Goering is a spinster who takes a companion, Miss Gamelon, into her wealthy home. The two are bound by routine, solitude and often bitchy exchanges. Christina longs to escape and buys a house on an island. A male friend, Arnold, moves in with them followed briefly by his father.

Frieda Copperfield, much more fragile of the two and fraught with insecurity, accompanies her stick of a husband on his travels. In Panama, the couple drift ever further apart and Frieda finds herself drawn to the seedy underworld of the city where she encounters (and falls for) the prostitute Pacifica.

Bowles addresses the darker corners of life but with plenty of dark and razor sharp wit. This kind of exploration that blurs the lines between sexuality and the female quest for independence has been addressed before (Angela Carter and Djuna Barnes) but Bowles' humor and wit are unmistakably her own.

Bowles’ sentences teeter magically between tragedy and farce – for example, “Miss Goering felt as uneasy as one can feel listening to parade music in a quiet room.” Delineating plot in the novel is pointless - the one constant is that on every page the reader will be surprised.

Bowles’ strength lies not only in her wit and her strength of characterization but in her obsession with the crystalline nature of experience. Her prose is often pure rugged description, crisp and cinematic, and emotionally complex - and every description, ardent, detailed, is a description of the whole.

mavis gallant - for this week's lit seminar

Mavis Gallant’s story, “Mademoiselle Dias de Corta," is a second-person narrative in which the overtly conservative narrator directly addresses the central character whose absence only serves to strengthen her hold on the narrator. The tone of the story is set in the stunning opening with the narrator addressing her former lodger: "You moved into my apartment during the summer of the year before abortion became legal in France; that should fix it in past time for you, dear Mlle. Dias de Corta."

Gallant, through carefully etched prose gives us a full character sketch of a middle class French woman replete with her snobbery ("a young lady of mixed descent...two of her grandparents are Swiss...") and racism ("Asian colonization had already begun...") and her desperate loneliness ("my son was seldom available for conversation..."). She does this with a narrative dexterity seldom seen in modern literature and in such a way that the reader is scarcely aware of the complexity of the portrait until the story is finished.

That Gallant is a genius is evident from the first paragraph to the last - the sheer vigor and velocity of her writing, the use of details that are always relevant, and characters so finely etched in a few sentences that not only do we see them and hear them but come to pity, loathe and laugh at and with them in the few pages of their existence. Gallant is a master of the novel within a short story - in other words, the ability to create a complete snapshot of a character's life - in this case, the narrator's - within a few short pages. The pathos of this story creeps up stealthily with hints at the narrator's loneliness, her wasted life until at the story's close we are delivered a vision of desperation, "I prefer to live in the expectation of hearing the elevator stop at my floor and then your ring, and of having you tell me you have come home."

gnomic \NOH-mik\ adjective
*1 : characterized by aphorism
2 : given to the composition of aphoristic writing

Example sentence: The poet Emily Dickinson, who wrote "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant," is known for her highly individualistic, gnomic style.

Did you know?
A gnome is an aphorism -- that is, an observation or sentiment reduced to the form of a saying. Gnomes are sometimes couched in metaphorical or figurative language, they are often quite clever, and they are always concise. We borrowed the word "gnome" in the 16th century from the Greeks, who based their "gnome" on the verb "gignoskein," meaning "to know." (That other "gnome" -- the dwarf of folklore -- comes from New Latin and is unrelated to today's word.) We began using "gnomic," the adjective form of "gnome," in the early 19th century. It describes a style of writing (or sometimes speech) characterized by pithy phrases, which are often terse to the point of mysteriousness.

random quotes

A lifetime is more than sufficiently long for people to get what there is of it wrong. -- Unknown

It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose. -- Darrin Weinberg

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. -- Oscar Wilde

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex. -- Aldous Huxley

At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies. -- P. G. Wodehouse, Uneasy Money

New Literature from Europe event tomorrow night

Thursday, October 19th
Special Event:
The Writer in the City: New Literature From Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Spain)
Lang Center, 55 West 13th St. 7:00pm, Free


The New School is proud to host the third annual New Literature from Europe event, organized by the Goethe-Institut, in partnership with Instituto Cervantes, Italian Cultrual Institute, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Czech Center, all in New York. The event bring’s us the best of the best from across the pond--- literary heavyweights whom you may not get a chance to hear again any time soon. There will be readings by and conversations with Bruce Begout (France), Thomas Meinecke (Germany), Sandro Veronesi (winner of Italy's Strega Prize for 2006), Andres Barba (Spain), Michal Viewegh (Czech Republic). Followed by a discussion moderated by Robert Polito. In association with the European Dream Festival. www.europeandream.us


Sandro Veronesi ( Italy )
Sandro Veronesi, born in Florence in 1959, published his first novel in 1988. His
2000 novel, La forza del passato ( The Force of the Past, HarperCollins 2004),
was translated into 15 languages and won the Campiello and Viareggio awards.
With Venite, venite B 52 (1995), Veronesi moved away from traditional Italian
narrative and toward the American psychedelic culture of authors like Thomas
Pynchon and Tom Robbins. His latest novel, Caos Calmo, was honored with the 2006 Strega award.

Thomas Meinecke ( Germany )
Born in 1955 in Hamburg , Meinecke was co-editor of the avant-garde magazine, Mode und Verzweiflung [Fashion and Despair] from 1978 until 1986. His short story collection, Mit der Kirche ums Dorf [Around the Village with the Church] appeared in 1986 and further publications include the short novel, Holz [Wood] (1988) and the novels The Church of John F. Kennedy (1996), Tomboy (1998), Hellblau [Light Blue]
(2001), and Musik (2004). The author is co-founder of the band F.S.K. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle [Voluntary Self-Control]) and DJ on his own radio show, Zündfunk
Nachtmix.

Bruce Bégout ( France )
Bruce Bégout is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bordeaux . Several of his books focus on America, among them his essays Zeropolis (2002) (Zeropolis: The Experience of LasVegas, Reaktion Books, 2003) and Lieu Commun, Le motel américain (2003), in which he explores the motel experience, which touches on contemporary forms of urban life, marginality, poverty, mobility, and depersonalization. And again in
L'éblouissement des bords de route (2004), Bégout depicts the American suburbs and the standardization of our existence. His latest title is La découverte du quotidien (2005). Bruce Bégout is currently working on a book about Los Angeles .

Hana Andronikova ( Czech Republic )
Born in 1967 in Zlín, Hana Andronikova studied English and Czech literature at Charles University . Her first novel, Zvuk sluneè ních hodin [The Sound of the Sundial] (2001), was published to great acclaim, receiving the Book Club Literary Award in 2001 and the 2002 Magnesia Litera Award/Discovery of the Year category. This wide-ranging tale ranges from early 1920’s Zlín to 1930’s India to a Nazi concentration camp and contemporary America . Her collection of short stories, Srdce na udici [Heart on the Hook] (2002), confirmed her prominent position among the major names of contemporary Czech prose. Hana Andronikova lives in Prague .

Andrés Barba ( Spain )
Born in Madrid in 1975, Andrés Barba’s first published title, the short novel El hueso que más duele (1997) [The Bone that Most Hurts], received the Ramón J. Sender Fiction award. His novel La hermana deKatia (2001) [Katia's Sister], was named as a finalist for the HerraldeAward. In addition to La recta intención (2002) [The Honest Intention] and Ahora tocad música de baile (2004) [Now Play a Dance Tune] Barba has recently published Versiones de Teresa (2006) [Versions of Teresa],for which he received the Torrente Ballester Fiction award . Andrés Barba is currently senior professor of Spanish at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Escuela Contemporánea de Humanidades of Madrid , and Bowdoin College in Maine .

Robert Polito, moderator
Robert Polito, born in Boston , is the author of Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award and an Edgar, and A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover, among other titles. He is editor of the Library of America volumes, Crime Novels: American Noir of the 30s and 40s and American Noir of the 50s and has published essays and poems in numerous magazines, including the The New Yorker, ArtForum, BOMB, the New York Times Book Review, and VLS. Having taught at Harvard, Wellesley , and New York University , he has been Director of the Writing Program at The New School since 1992.

Actress Jacqueline Chambord has appeared in Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Festival, among other New York productions, narrated numerous films and recorded museum acoustiguides for MOMA and the Frick Collection. She currently is working on a book of her photographs that document 30 years of the French cultural presence in New York .

Actor Demosthenes Chrysan (AEA) has appeared in numerous, contemporary and classical, regional productions for Florida Stage, Arkansas Repertory, Riverside Theatre, Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, as well as the award winning regional premiere of Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul at Trinity Repertory Theatre. Television appearances include One Life to Live and Law & Order: SVU.


Here are some assorted reviews of the visiting readers:

Booklist on Sandro Veronesi’s The Force of the Past
*Starred Review* Veronesi is a master storyteller who keeps his readers breathless until the very end. He captures a man's midlife reexamination of the relationship with his father perfectly, and without cliche--a nearly impossible feat. Michael Spinella

Livres Hebdo on Bruce Begout’s The Experience of Las Vegas
"This is a real gem, as brilliant and remarkable as its subject"—Livres Hebdo

Booklist on Michal Viewegh’s Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia
“Viewegh's clever, satirical novel is the story of the trials, tribulations, adventures, and loves of Beata Kralova, as told through the adoring eyes of her much older tutor…In this brilliant snapshot of modern-day Prague…Viewegh describes the "new millionaires" of Czech society, the Prague mafiosi, and the omnipresent expatriate Americans, to name just a few of his memorable…characters.”

U.S. Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan reported 10/15-10/17/06

from DOD releases dated 10/15-10/17/06

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 15 of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Kirkuk, Iraq, during combat operations. Both soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Killed were:
1st Lt. Joshua Deese, 25, of North Carolina. He died in Balad, Iraq, following the incident.

Sgt. Jonathan E. Lootens, 25, of Lyons, N.Y.

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of three Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Brock A. Babb, 40, of Evansville, Ind., died Oct. 15 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Babb was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Terre Haute, Ind.

Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Hines, 26, of Olney, Ill., died Oct. 15 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Hines was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Terre Haute, Ind.

Sgt. Jonathan J. Simpson, 25, of Rockport, Texas, died Oct. 14 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Simpson was assigned to 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

2nd Lt. Johnny K. Craver, 37, of McKinney, Texas, died Oct. 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Craver was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Cpl. Luis E. Tejeda, 20, of Huntington Park, Calif., died Sept. 30 in Al Asad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations in Hit, Iraq. Tejeda was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

Airman 1st Class Leebenard E. Chavis, 21, of Hampton, Va., died Oct. 14 while performing duties as a turret gunner with the Iraqi police in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq. Chavis was assigned to the 824th Security Forces Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Pfc. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, of Hemet, Calif., died on Oct. 13 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Stanton was assigned to the 57th Military Police Company, Waegwan, Korea.

Sgt. Nicholas R. Sowinski, 25, of Tempe, Ariz., died on Oct. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Sowinski was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 14 of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq. All soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:
1st Sgt. Charles M. King, 48, of Mobile, Ala.

Staff Sgt. Joseph M. Kane, 35, of Darby, Pa.

Spc. Timothy J. Lauer, 25, of Saegertown, Pa.

Pfc. Keith J. Moore, 28, of San Francisco, died Oct. 14 in Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-combat related injury. Moore was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. The incident is under investigation.

Soldiers, Marine Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2006 – Nine soldiers and a Marine were killed yesterday in various incidents throughout Iraq, military officials reported, and the Defense Department released the identities of seven soldiers who were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
-- A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier was killed when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle he was riding in north of Baghdad. 


-- Three Task Force Lightning soldiers assigned to 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were killed and one was wounded as a result of enemy action while conducting operations in Diyala province. The wounded soldier was transported to a coalition hospital.


-- A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier died when terrorists attacked his patrol with small-arms fire in northern Baghdad.


-- A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died from wounds suffered due to enemy action while operating in Anbar province.


-- Four Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle they were riding in west of Baghdad. 

The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. 

Meanwhile, DoD released the identities of seven soldiers who were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. 



-- Army 1st Lt. Joshua Deese, 25, of North Carolina, and Army Sgt. Jonathan E. Lootens, 25, of Lyons, N.Y., died Oct. 15 in Balad, Iraq, after a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle in Kirkuk. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.



-- Army Pfc. Keith J. Moore, 28, of San Francisco, died Oct. 14 in Baghdad of a non-combat-related injury. Moore was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.



-- Army 1st Sgt. Charles M. King, 48, of Mobile, Ala.; Army Staff Sgt. Joseph M. Kane, 35, of Darby, Pa.; and Army Spc. Timothy J. Lauer, 25, of Saegertown, Pa., died Oct. 14 of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.



-- Army Capt. Mark C. Paine, 32, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., died Oct. 15 in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Paine was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Capt. Mark C. Paine, 32, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., died Oct. 15 in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Paine was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

U.S. Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan reported 10/11-10/14/06

Servicemembers Killed in Iraq; Previous Casualties Identified
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2006 – Five soldiers, a Marine and an airman were killed in various operations in Iraq Oct. 12 through yesterday, and the Defense Department released the identities of 10 soldiers and 10 Marines killed recently supporting Operation Iraq Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.

-- Three Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers were killed yesterday when an improvised explosive device struck the vehicle they were riding in south of Baghdad. 

-

- A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died yesterday from injuries suffered due to enemy action while operating in Iraq's Anbar province. 



-- An airman assigned to the 732nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, was killed yesterday while performing duties as a turret gunner with the Iraqi police near Baghdad. 



-- A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier died Oct. 13 from wounds he suffered southwest of Baghdad when an improvised explosive struck the vehicle he was riding in.



-- A Task Force Lightning soldier from the 105th Engineer Group was killed Oct. 12 as the result of an improvised explosive device while conducting vehicle operations in northern Iraq. 

The servicemembers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. 



Meanwhile, DoD released the identities of 10 soldiers and 10 Marines who were killed in action or later died of wounds in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom. 



-- Army Spc. Jason A. Lucas, 24, of Columbus, Ohio, died Oct. 13 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered when a suicide bomber attacked his vehicle. Lucas was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Polk, La.



-- Army Pvt. 1st Class Thomas J. Hewitt, 22, of Temple, Texas, died Oct. 13 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., from injuries suffered during a Sept. 26 incident in Baghdad, during which an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Hewitt was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.



-- Army Sgt. Gene A. Hawkins, 24, of Orlando, Fla., died Oct. 12 in Mosul, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his RG-31 mine-protected vehicle. Hawkins was assigned to the 14th Engineer Battalion, 555th Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement), Fort Lewis, Wash. 



-- Army Capt. Shane T. Adcock, 27, of Mechanicsville, Va., died Oct. 11 in Hawijah, Iraq, from enemy grenade fire. Adcock was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.



-- Army Chief Warrant Officer Scott W. Dyer, 38, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., died Oct. 11 in Banditemur, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered during combat operations. Dyer was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C. 



-- Marine Sgt. Justin T. Walsh, 24, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, died Oct. 11 at National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md., from wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Anbar province on Oct. 5. He was assigned to 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.



-- Army Pfc. Phillip B. Williams, 21, of Gardnerville, Nev., died Oct. 9 in Baghdad from injuries suffered during combat operations. Williams was assigned to the 4th Brigade Troop Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. 



-- Marine Sgt. Julian M. Arechaga, 23, of Oceanside, N.Y.; Marine Lance Cpl. Jon E. Bowman, 21, of Dubach, La.; and Marine Pfc. Shelby J. Feniello, 25, of Connellsville, Pa., died Oct. 9 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Anbar province, Iraq. They were assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. 



-- Army Spc. Timothy A. Fulkerson, 20, of Utica, Ky., died Oct. 8 in Tikrit, Iraq, when a land mine detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Fulkerson was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 82nd Aviation Reconnaissance Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. 



-- Marine Capt. Robert M. Secher, 33, of Germantown, Tenn., died Oct. 8 from wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in Anbar province. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan.



-- Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen F. Johnson, 20, of Marietta, Ga., died Oct. 8 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. 



-- Marine Lance Cpl. Derek W. Jones, 21, of Salem, Ore., and Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Sandvick Monroe, 20, of Chinook, Mont., died Oct. 8 from wounds suffered during combat operations in Anbar province. They were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.



-- Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence L. Parrish, 36, of Lebanon, Mo., who was assigned to the 110th Engineer Battalion, Kansas City, Mo.; and Army Spec. John E. Wood, 37, of Humboldt, Kan., who was assigned to the 891st Engineer Battalion, Garnett, Kan., died Oct. 7 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations.



-- Army Sgt. Brandon S. Asbury, 21, of Tazewell, Va., died Oct. 7 in Baghdad from injuries suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small-arms fire. Asbury was assigned to the 4th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 



-- Marine Cpl. Bradford H. Payne, 24, of Montgomery, Ala., and Marine Lance Cpl. John E. Hale, 20, of Shreveport, La., died Oct. 6 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province. They were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Sgt. Gene A. Hawkins, 24, of Orlando, Fla., died on Oct. 12 in Mosul, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his RG-31 Mine Protected Vehicle. Hawkins was assigned to the 14th Engineer Battalion, 555th Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement), Fort Lewis, Wash.

Spc. Jason A. Lucas, 24, of Columbus, Ohio, died on Oct. 13 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his vehicle was struck by a suicide bomber using a vehicle-born improvised explosive device. Lucas was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Polk, La.

Private 1st Class Thomas J. Hewitt, 22, of Temple, Texas, died on Oct. 13 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., from injuries sustained during a Sept. 26 incident in Baghdad, Iraq, during which an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Hewitt was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

Capt. Shane T. Adcock, 27, of Mechanicsville, Va., died on Oct. 11 in Hawijah, Iraq, from injuries suffered from enemy grenade fire. Adcock was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Chief Warrant Officer Scott W. Dyer, 38, of Cocoa Beach, Fla., died Oct. 11 in Banditemur, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered during combat operations. Dyer was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Lance Cpl. Derek W. Jones, 21, of Salem, Ore., died Oct. 8 from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Sandvick Monroe, 20, of Chinook, Mont., died Oct. 8 from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Capt. Robert M. Secher, 33, of Germantown, Tenn., died Oct. 8 from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan.

Sgt. Julian M. Arechaga, 23, of Oceanside, N.Y., died Oct. 9 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lance Cpl. Jon E. Bowman, 21, of Dubach, La., died Oct. 9 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Pfc. Shelby J. Feniello, 25, of Connellsville, Pa., died Oct. 9 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lance Cpl. John E. Hale, 20, of Shreveport, La., died Oct. 6 from wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lance Cpl. Stephen F. Johnson, 20, of Marietta, Ga., died Oct. 8 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Bradford H. Payne, 24, of Montgomery, Ala., died Oct. 6 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Pfc. Phillip B. Williams, 21, of Gardnerville, Nev., died Oct. 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered from enemy contact during combat operations. Williams was assigned to the 4th Brigade Troop Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

Indirect Fire Claims Four Soldiers; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2006 – Four Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers died at about 9 a.m. yesterday when terrorists attacked their patrol with indirect and small-arms fire northwest of Baghdad.
The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. 
Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of five soldiers and one Marine who were killed recently supporting the war on terror. 



-- Marine Capt. Justin D. Peterson, 32, of Davisburg, Mich., died Oct. 1 from a non-hostile vehicle accident in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.



-- Army Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, of Bayside, N.Y., died at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, on Oct. 1 from a non-combat related incident. Lannaman was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1569th Transportation Company, Newburgh, N.Y.



-- Army Sgt. Joseph W. Perry, 23, of Alpine, Calif., died on Oct. 2 in Muhallah, Iraq, when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces using small-arms fire. Perry was assigned to the 21st Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, 18th Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, N.C. 



-- Army Spc. Angelo J. Vaccaro, 23, of Deltona, Fla., died Oct. 2 in Korengal, Afghanistan, from injuries suffered during combat operations. Vaccaro was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. 



-- Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rojas, 27, of Hammond, Ind., died on Oct. 3 in Baghdad from injuries suffered from enemy small-arms fire while performing security operations. Rojas was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Ala.



-- Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Isshak, 25, of Alta Loma, Calif., died on Oct. 3 in Tikrit, Iraq, from injuries suffered when his vehicle received enemy small-arms fire at Hawija during combat operations. Isshak was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

U.S. Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan reported 10/9-10/11/06

Sgt. Brandon S. Asbury, 21, of Tazewell, Va., died on Oct. 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations. Asbury was assigned to the 4th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Spec. Timothy A. Fulkerson, 20, of Utica, Ky., died Oct. 8 in Tikrit, Iraq, when a landmine detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Fulkerson was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 82nd Aviation Reconnaissance Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Oct. 7 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. Killed were: Sgt. Lawrence L. Parrish, 36, of Lebanon, Mo., who was assigned to the 110th Engineer Battalion, Kansas City, Mo. Spec. John E. Wood, 37, of Humboldt, Kan., who was assigned to the 891st Engineer Battalion, Garnett, Kan.

Soldiers, Marines Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2006 – Two soldiers and six Marines were killed in various operations in Iraq Oct. 8 and 9, and the Defense Department released the identities of seven soldiers killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier died at about 10:45 a.m. Oct. 9 when terrorists attacked his patrol with small-arms fire in eastern Baghdad.
Three Marines assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, died Oct. 9 from enemy action while operating in Anbar province.
A Task Force Lightning soldier based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., attached to 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, died of wounds suffered from an explosion while on a vehicle patrol Oct. 8 north of Tikrit.
Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Oct. 8 from wounds suffered due to enemy action while operating in Anbar province.

The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Meanwhile, DoD released the identities of seven soldiers who were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Army Pfc. Shane R. Austin, 19, of Edgerton, Kan., died Oct. 8 in Ramadi, Iraq, from injuries suffered by enemy grenade fire. Johnson was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armor Division, Baumholder, Germany.

Army Cpl. Carl W. Johnson II, 21, of Philadelphia, died Oct. 7 in Mosul, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Johnson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Army Cpl. Nicholas A. Arvanitis, 22, of Salem, N.H., died Oct. 6 in Bayji, Iraq, from injuries suffered when he encountered enemy fire. Arvanitis was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

Army Staff Sgt. Christopher O. Moudry, 31, of Baltimore; Spc. Timothy R. Burke, 24, of Hollywood, Fla.; Spc. George R. Obourn Jr., 20, of Creve Coeur, Ill.; and Pfc. Dean R. Bright, 32, of Roseburg, Oregon, died in Taji, Iraq, on Oct. 4 after being attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire and other weapons. All four soldiers were assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Six Marines Killed in Iraq; DoD Identifies Previous Casualties
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2006 – Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 were killed yesterday in Iraq, and three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Oct. 6 in Iraq. All died from enemy action while operating in the country's Anbar province, U.S. military officials reported. The names of the six Marines are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department released the identities of five soldiers who were killed recently supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
-Army Spc. Fernando D. Robinson, 21, of Hawthorne, Calif., died on Oct. 2 in Korengal, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his patrol came under attack by enemy forces using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Robinson was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
-Army Staff Sgt. James D. Ellis, 25, of Valdosta, Ga.; Army Spc. Raymond S. Armijo, 22, of Phoenix, Ariz.; Army Spc. Justin R. Jarrett, 21, of Jonesboro, Ga., and Army Spc. Kristofer C. Walker, 20, of Creve Coeur, Ill., died in Taji, Iraq, on Oct. 2, of injuries sustained when an makeshift bomb detonated near their vehicle. All four soldiers were assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

52 books in 52 weeks

haven't posted this in a while but here's this year's 52 books in 52 weeks so far - in no particular order & * means re-read. & as per usual - I'm not counting lit. journals, poetry collections or anything read for the day job or school.

1. jeanette winterson/gut symmetries
2. jeanette winterson/the passion*
3. j. lethem/as she climbed across the table
4. j. lethem/fortress of solitude
5. larry brown/big bad love * (3rd time?)
6. e. kostova/the historian (man...does she need a good editor!)
7. zadie smith/on beauty
8. cormac mccarthy/no country for old men
9. joan didion/the year of magical thinking (read it twice - does that count as 2?)
10. joan didion/where I'm from
11. wm vollmann/europe central
12. malcolm gladwell/the tipping point
13. steve earle/doghouse roses
14. ian mcewan/saturday 1
5. francine prose/a changed man
16. francine prose/guided tours of hell
17. alice greenway/white ghost girls
18. james lee burke/jolie blon's bounce
19. michael ondaatje/coming through slaughter* (3rd time?)
20. james lee burke/sunset limited
21. james lee burke/lost get-back boogie
22. james lee burke/half of paradise
23. cortazar/hopscotch* (it's different every time)
24. wm gass/fiction & the figures of life
25. wm gass/tests of time
26. flannery o'connor/mystery & manners
27. neil jordan/shade
28. the warrior's camera-cinema of akira kurosawa [forgot who the author is, sorry!]
29. roy stars/deadly dialectics: sex, violence & nihilism in mishima
30. michael yapko/hand-me-down blues
31. d. parker/not much fun (lost poems of dorothy parker)
32. anthony swofford/jarhead* (re-read prior to this year's Tin House workshop)
33. james lee burke/crusader's cross
34. james lee burke/pegasus descending
35. ronlyn domingue/the mercy of thin air
36. anthony swofford/EXIT A
37. brinkley/the great deluge
38. james lee burke/the neon rain
39. cormac mccarthy/the road
40. mary gaitskill/veronica
41. madison smartt bell/straight cut
42. neil gaiman/fragile things
43. james lee burke/black cherry blues

that's all I can remember right now though there are probably more.

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. -- Leonardo da Vinci

marlene checks in from Chile

Hola from Chile,
Well, I made it through an amazing five weeks in Peru and just arrived in Chile yesterday. I am in San Pedro
de Atacama, a tiny village that serves as the gateway to the Atacama desert. I have signed up for the full
range of tours here--three different Chilean desert tours, including sunset and moon rise at the Valley of
the Moon tonight, with a full moon, and a four-day trip into the Bolivian side of the Atacama including an area called Dali´s rocks, with crazy formations. Quite high altitude so I´ll be back in all my cold weather gear, including staying one night in a salt hotel. The tours are real cheap up here but everything else in Chile is much more expensive than Peru. I´ve also noticed in my one day more cell phones and way more cigarettes. I can count on one hand the number of locals smoking in Peru. But both countries have a lot of no smoking laws in restaurants, etc. Peru even passed a mandatory seat belt law for the whole while I was there, even the backseat. My last 10 days in Peru were spent heading up to the north, where tourists rarely venture. The Australian I met in Nazca, Rachel, and I traveled the whole way together, which was great, including several overnight buses. Most of the buses are really quite comfortable in Peru and I caught up on my B-movies, as well. My one bus ride so far in Chile was a bit of culture shock. Peru was more organized in purchasing tickets the day before departure. In Chile you just walk up, but the signs were not as clear where I was boarding from and at one bathroom stop I emerged to an empty bus slot, having a quick heart attack before one man tried to explain in Spanish that it would be returning. I couldn´t tell if he said, Don´t worry the bus is coming back,¨or ¨Sorry tourist, you´re screwed,¨ but it did return and all was well. The rest of my Peru trip was really wonderful. The only disappointment was the Isla Ballestas, ¨Poor man´s Galapagos¨ which would have been beautiful in better weather (this season it´s just misty and gray
on the coast, much like San Francisco on the worst day of August), and more enjoyable if the tour company
didn´t race around the island so fast. Penguins, Peruvian boobies (um... the bird that is), pelicans, sea lions, all inhabit the small rocks, pooping on tour boats from overhead, and making lots of noise. I didn´t have enough time to see everything I wanted in the north but squeezed in quite a bit. The whole area is filled with ruins and sites dating well before the Incas. Also, the tour guides in the north rarely speak English, so I had to make do with my Spanish. I could understand a few guides quite well, others were a bit of a mystery. We started in Chiclayo-Lambayeque, famed for its Lord of Sipan tomb and Sipan museum. It´s the King Tut of Peru, a tomb that was filled with gold crowns, gold breast plates, massive earrings and other adornments for the Lord of Sipan, an important figure who died at the age of 40. His whole family was buried with him as was custom, including a few sacrifices, like his son. They threw in a dog, tomb guardians, a llama, concubines, the works. It, like most tombs up here, was raided long ago by tomb robbers, but much was recovered and is displayed exquisitely in the museum. We also visited the witches market in Chiclayo, an area known for its shamen. One young guy in the market gave us each a little bottle of potion mixed from herbs according to our birth signs. He did a little shake of the bottle and said it would bring luck, money, and safe travels--for the rest of my life to boot. Gotta love that. All for about $5. Another overnight bus got us to the highlands area of Chachopoyas, a relaxed tiny town amid mountains, waterfalls, and more ruins. The biggie is Kuelap, supposedly the Machu Picchu of the north. It´s a three hour car ride on bad roads, but Peru is trying to promote this area and plans to build a cable car from one of the towns straight to the top of the mountain where it´s situated. I wanted to see it before it changes. There is a lot of reconstruction going on at the site, but it´s not nearly as reworked as Machu Picchu. It´s a nice jungly walk around, though, with some cute llamas grazing amid the ruins. I didn´t quite understand our guide that day and not much is known about Kuelap yet, except it was a fortress city built by the Chachopoyans. It will be a while before the tourist hordes start coming. We saw mostly Peruvian school kids. From Chachopoyas we also visited some sarcophogi sites, with the mummy jars embedded in the mountain, as well as a walk along another old Inca trail for a few hours from a small town Levanto back to Chachopoyas. I did that with another solo San Franciscan traveler we met in Chachopoyas who is an electrician for the city and has spent a month here mostly camping by himself. The locals in Levanto were friendly (and mildly sauced on some local beer). They offered us the brew but I declined thinking of the 12-hour bus ride I would be taking that night. I took a few photos of the women and they made a big deal of me sending them the photos. The only issue was the address, which they finally agreed should be ´¨Bodega with the phone box,¨ Levanto. I ate quite well in Peru. Nearly every town, including Chachopoyas, had a vegetarian restaurant. In Chachopoyas the restaurant Eden had a live infomercial-type demo going on when we were there. A woman had a styrofoam cup, a vitamin pill, and some liquid in the cup--oil or petroleum, or something. She dropped it in and the top of the cup melted. I´m not sure what the point was--either pro vitamin, anti styrofoam, or to stop drinking petroleum. The audience, aside from us, was a small group of locals who looked like they had been dragged to a Time Share meeting. I also stopped on the way back to Lima at Trujillo, known for its large ancient city Chan Chan and old Temple of the Moon with some beautiful friezes. I took an organized day trip since I only had one day and it was well worth it. Good guide, great sites. Back to Lima, which I actually like. I spent two days total there and saw several great museums, including the museum of gold and a ceramics museum with an erotic ceramics gallery. The monastery of San Francisco was another highlight with the oldest Library in Latin America I believe and some freaky catacombs with very organized bones. Security is very visible all over Lima, especially near the main plaza where I felt I could have walked around with money hanging out of my pockets and cameras around my neck without issue. I have to say I am a bit ruined-out, but the many mummies never got old. I also managed to find a counterculture shop with anti McDonald´s wristbands (McMuerte, or McDeath in translation) and punk rock buttons from the U.S. My tour leaves in an hour, so have to get my camera gear ready. After the desert it´s Easter Island and then my convention in Santiago. I have a couple of weeks after that for Patagonia. I´ll update soon.