Dr. Black Extract

Here is an extract from Dr. Black and the Village of Stones, which was published in Electric Velocipede last year:

beef-flakes fell from the clear sky; a thick shower, on the ground, draped in trees, hanging on fences     mutton or venison     lung-tissue     shower of frogs darkened the sky and covered the earth very young minnows, fishes, falling in a straight line, in a space not more than a metre square     or grain which the goats ate and women ground into flour, made burebrot, decent, but not of the highest quality dried spawn of some reptile, doubtless the frog     each drop was made up of many thin red blood river worms with transparent bodies     stones from the clouds    caterpillars, over beyond the shoulder of the mountain     more extreme: eggs; barrels of sugar; falls of salt; butter; ham; a typewriter

Palin gets exorcised

Some new books I bought while in California

Theophrastus: Characters

Edward Bulwer Lytton: Pelham, or The Adventures of a Gentleman

Edward Bulwer Lytton: Lucretia

Claude Farrère: Useless Hands

Quote of the Day

And in his grip take barley cakes, dried figs, and cheese, such cheese as scapegoats may feed on.

—Hipponax