The Fire Tetrahedron, from Hobart Institute of Welding Technology.

“People ask me, ‘What do you do?’ And I tell them I’m a writer, but always with the silent reservation, ‘I am, of course, not really a writer. Hemingway was a writer.’

“I like to stay in my room. I have an office and I go there every day and write. I used to think I’d like to be a fireman—in fact, I still would—and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.”

– David Mamet, excerpted from “Mamet Talk” by Lillian Ross, The New Yorker 05.19.2008.

Fire extinguisher diagram from United States Patent 7188679.

The New York Times has posted a glorious interactive graphic of box office grosses from 1986 to 2008. See how blockbusters spike and then fizzle away and word-of-mouth favorites extend into plump worms. I love how the graphic turns the film industry into a thorny, twisting vine of earth-toned globs — clumped together artery-clogging fat sediments, writhing, with neat Helvetica labels.

Father’s Day, from The Ghost Soldiers
James Tate

My daughter has lived overseas for a number
of years now. She married into royalty, and they
won’t let her communicate with any of her family or
friends. She lives on birdseed and a few sips
of water. She dreams of me constantly. Her husband,
the Prince, whips her when he catches her dreaming.
Fierce guard dogs won’t let her out of their sight.
I hired a detective, but he was killed trying to
rescue her. I have written hundreds of letters
to the State Department. They have written back
saying that they are aware of the situation. I
never saw her dance. I was always at some
convention. I never saw her sing. I was always
working late. I called her My Princess, to make
up for my shortcomings, and she never forgave me.
Birdseed was her middle name.

[At the Kitchen Table, Glen Spey, NY]  Photograph by Alex Meriwether, 2003