Edward Champion reports from the front lines of the merry Jonathan Ames reading last night in SF, at which acupuncture, crabs and audiobooks were discussed alongside Ames' devilish Wake Up, Sir!:

Shortly after suggesting that he was "the gayest straight writer in America," Ames then let loose three hairy calls. These sounds permeated the depths of the Booksmith. Ames had had some practice with these, having resorted to hairy calls as a child when threatened by normal children.

As I've been developing a feel for what kind of stories would fit well on Watershed, I keep thinking I should narrow my focus even more. I should just research and post science and policy informaiton exclusively. But when I take that to the natural conclusion, I would end up only posting about dams, utilities, and drought. Which, like any narrow focus, would ignore all the joy and purpose people take out of water, or any other topic. If I'm writing about water, and I can't write about, say, fishing or diving or beaches, then where's the fun?

It wld mean I wouldn't post pointers to excellent pieces of trivia like this AP story about Hungary's long-standing fascination with the sport of water polo.... Glub.