ADDED   articles/2003-01-21.poly.pm
Index: articles/2003-01-21.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/2003-01-21.poly.pm
+++ articles/2003-01-21.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2003-01-21")
+◊(define-meta series "journal")
+
+◊caps{JIPW} arrives back on the air, after a nearly two-year absence. Simplify and improve: those
+are the watchwords, friends. This site now loads more quickly and makes better use of the screen.
+Away with PHP and JavaScripts! Away with excessive graphics and pretentious layout! Let there be
+ASCII!

ADDED   articles/2003-03-10.poly.pm
Index: articles/2003-03-10.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/2003-03-10.poly.pm
+++ articles/2003-03-10.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2003 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2003-03-10")
+
+If you had told me a month ago that I would actually rather starve than cook a meal for myself,
+I would not have believed you. But having been plunged into a life of bachelorly self-sufficiency,
+I find that it is not that hard to get from not liking cooking to simply skipping the meal
+altogether.
+
+It goes like this. I come home from work and go upstairs. Now, I might like a nice meal, I say to
+myself. (If I were normal I would merely think it to myself, but more often than not I end up saying
+it aloud.) But, what should I eat? I immediately consider the path of reasoning that leads to the
+most desirable end: a hot, tasty meal. However, a number of obstacles immediately leap out from
+behind my visionary steaming casseroles and boiled vegetables. It takes too long; I’d rather not do
+that many dishes afterwards; I have hardly anything in the cupboard because I’m too cheap to buy
+things I know I’ll never cook anyway; and most of all, I hate cooking.
+
+So much for that idea. But now, I’ve got to have something else. The only alternatives to cooking
+are cereal and sandwiches. But I’ve just had a sandwich for lunch, and I’m starting to get sick of
+having cereal. From this point it is only a trifling logical hop to thinking that, of course, the
+simplest thing would be to just not eat. I’m not that hungry anyway (it’s always either that or I’m
+more tired than I am hungry), and it would probably make the next meal taste better, and I would be
+saving money anyway. So after a few links in a simple line of reasoning, I have arrived at such an
+aberration of thought, that the Darwinians might despair of my genus being around for many more
+generations.

ADDED   articles/2003-03-29.poly.pm
Index: articles/2003-03-29.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/2003-03-29.poly.pm
+++ articles/2003-03-29.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2003 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2003-03-29")
+
+◊verse{One horse shot  
+One rogue possum slain  
+And one neighbors’ barn gone down in flames.}

ADDED   articles/art-fare-for-the-common-man.poly.pm
Index: articles/art-fare-for-the-common-man.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/art-fare-for-the-common-man.poly.pm
+++ articles/art-fare-for-the-common-man.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2003 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2003-02-10")
+
+◊title{Art Fare for the Common Man}
+
+◊caps{LET US} discuss the writing of poetry. Here is an excerpt from a woefully typical modern-day
+poem:
+
+◊verse[#:italic? #t]{
+A card table in the library stands ready
+To receive the puzzle which keeps never coming.
+Daylight shines in or lamplight down
+Upon the tense oasis of green felt.
+Full of unfulfillment, life goes on,
+Mirage arisen from time's trickling sands
+Or fallen piecemeal into place:
+German lesson, picnic, see-saw, walk
+With the collie who 'did everything but talk' —
+Sour windfalls of the orchard back of us.}
+
+It is pieces like these that have pretty well killed popular taste for poetry. Those were the
+opening lines from the aptly-titled ◊i{Lost in Translation} by James Merril, and they demonstrate very
+well what is wrong with most contemporary efforts at English poetry: ◊strong{randomness}.
+
+The ◊index[#:key "poetry!appeal of"]{appeal of poetry} lies in expressing an idea ◊em{within the
+boundaries of some kind of pattern}, typically a rhyming or metrical pattern. To the degree that
+a poem lacks at least one easily discernible pattern, it will fail to be engaging, entertaining, and
+inspiring. The pattern forces the idea to be expressed efficiently and, may we say, musically:
+
+◊verse[#:italic? #t]{
+The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
+Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
+   Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line
+Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.}
+
+Both poems are vivid, and potentially full of implication; But where Merril’s poem prances awkwardly
+from vagueness to vagueness, Fitzgerald gives us something to chew on, an idea made powerful by the
+discipline of its rhyme and metre. Take note: We are not merely saying we prefer Fitzgerald to
+Merril. We are differentiating between real poetry and fake poetry.
+
+In modern poems such as Merril’s, random surreality carries the day, and is given the title of
+Inspired Art. This trend is largely a feature of academia, a self-contained world where tasselled
+charlatans write material for each other and turn up their noses at the real world. Even many who
+call themselves ‘outsider’ artists achieve what fame they can by imitating their academic
+counterparts. This is all fine and good, except that, by and large, all this uber-progressiveness is
+edging out forms of poetry that require real creative ability, the ability to inspire the Common
+Man.
+
+Anyone with an ear towards the artistic community cannot fail to note how disparagingly they speak
+of ‘public taste.’ Anything accessible and inspiring to the common man is hauled away in their wide
+net of ‘mass-marketing.’ To be sure, there is a lot of cheap, unoriginal work out there, but it at
+least does not make any claim of being more than what it is. What if a chef in a resturaunt should
+cook a fine steak? Is he “pandering to the interests of the public,” merely because his creations
+are both accepted and widely applauded? Should he abandon established forms and cook something that
+tastes bad so he can claim to be ‘progressive’ and ‘modern’?
+
+And so the fellow on the street, encountering a poem that only its author could possibly understand,
+is told that this is Real Art, and is made to think that it is above him. Nothing could be further
+from the truth; he really cannot understand it because it is below him. The author made no effort to
+reach up towards the mind of You or Me, to crystallize his vague ideas in a way that would be even
+understandable, let alone convincing. Proponents of things like this give very elaborate
+explanations for why their work is so stiflingly self-absorbed, discontinuous, and random; but mark
+our words: what they are really saying is, “We want to be hailed as geniuses without possessing the
+talent or expending the effort.”
+
+Again:
+
+◊verse[#:italic? #t]{
+Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just,
+struck matches that brought my blood to a boil;
+I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire—
+somehow never wrote something to go back to.}
+
+Lowell might have had something interesting to say in there somewhere, something to suggest that he
+had something worth listening to, but we search in vain to find it. It combines the boredom of prose
+with the awkwardness of bad poetry, and no one can stand to read much of it. But find a writer who
+really can use English to its best effect, and the light shines in!
+
+◊verse[#:italic? #t]{
+In a theme where the thoughts have a pedant strut,
+   In a changing quarrel of 'Ayes' and 'Noes'
+In a starched procession of 'If' and 'But,'
+   There is place and enough for the pains of prose;—
+   But whenever a soft glance softer glows,
+And the light-hours dance to the trysting-time,
+   And the secret is told "that nobody knows,"
+Then hey!—for the ripple of laughing rhyme!
+        (—Austin Dobson.)}
+
+We concern ourselves with English poetry, since that is more along our line of specialty, but any
+reader can recall other areas of art, such as music and architecture, where the same problem
+applies. Common man, do not believe all who call themselves Artists. The inner witness of the spirit
+is the only test of art—which is as much as to say, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.
+
+◊note[#:date "2015-03-08" #:disposition "* deprecated"]{
+Ten years after posting this, my views on poetry had changed. In the ◊link['hcr]{Sep 2013 episode of
+Howell Creek Radio}, I had this to say about the original article:
+
+◊blockquote{For example, there’s this short essay on my website from 2003 called Art Fare For the
+Common Man, in which 22-year old me basically argues (not very well, I now see) that “modern” poetry
+— meaning pretty much anything after the 1800s that doesn’t rhyme — is all of poor quality because
+modern poets don’t put enough effort into their poems to make them appeal to normal people on first
+reading. 22-year old me believes this pretty strongly; 32-year old me finds all kinds of problems
+with that essay.}
+
+◊url['hcr]{http://howellcreekradio.com/episodes/the-field-and-the-fortress}
+
+I tried to explain the substance of my new position in a chapter of ◊i{Noise of Creation} (‘0019.
+Non-Imitation’):
+
+◊blockquote{You asked me once about “modern poetry,” and whether I had any favourite modern poets,
+and by some delightful mental process each of us understood modern to mean both “doesn’t rhyme” and
+“written during my lifetime.”
+
+Because of course “rhyming” is a traditional form, and one meaning of “modern” has to do with
+departing from tradition.
+
+I didn’t know how to explain modern poetry to you except to explain that novelty is the essence of
+true communication… Whenever someone says something and you truly get it — when you hear it in your
+head exactly the way they do — it is always unprecedented. It’s like seeing a new color, or tasting
+a flavour you’ve never encountered. Tradition is the opposite of communication. Any tradition
+becomes a coating in your mouth; and poets, being into real communication, have a positive need for
+invention. ◊strong{At some point it becomes less a question of particular forms and structures, and more
+a hunt for the taste of that chemical reaction on your tongue.}}}

ADDED   articles/changing-hands-art-concept.poly.pm
Index: articles/changing-hands-art-concept.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/changing-hands-art-concept.poly.pm
+++ articles/changing-hands-art-concept.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2011-12-11")
+
+◊title{Changing Hands}
+
+This is an idea for an art installation. 
+
+Dozens of volunteers hold their arms up through closely-spaced holes in the floor of the room. You
+cannot see any part of the volunteers except their arms, which appear to be growing out of the
+floor. Each arm is sleeved in a different, random colour.
+
+If not otherwise occupied, the arms sway from side to side, gently feeling around them.
+
+A hundred-dollar bill is being passed from hand to hand all around the room.
+
+Visitors to the installation may walk through the sea of arms.

ADDED   articles/how-to-be-permanently-beloved-as-an-artist.poly.pm
Index: articles/how-to-be-permanently-beloved-as-an-artist.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/how-to-be-permanently-beloved-as-an-artist.poly.pm
+++ articles/how-to-be-permanently-beloved-as-an-artist.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2011-09-27")
+
+◊title{How to be Permanently Beloved as an Artist}
+
+Produce writing, music, or artwork targeted at young children. Indulge in an atmosphere of optimism,
+playfulness and innocent wonder. Inject adult sensibilities where appropriate.
+
+Be sure to make friends with children who enjoy your work. Respond to their letters, pose for their
+photographs, do them nice favours.
+
+Spend an intermediate period of time out of the limelight while your original audience goes through
+adolescence. This is your “naptime,” the siesta of your career – enjoy it while it lasts.
+
+Enjoy a new wave of attention as the kids who grew up with your work rediscover it as adults. 
+
+Enjoy making friends with more children, as parents begin introducing their little ones to your
+work, only partly as an excuse to vicariously re-experience it for themselves.
+
+Always use your powers for niceness.

ADDED   articles/jillettes-wipeout-test.poly.pm
Index: articles/jillettes-wipeout-test.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/jillettes-wipeout-test.poly.pm
+++ articles/jillettes-wipeout-test.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2011-12-16")
+
+◊title{Jillette’s Wipeout Test}
+
+◊blockquote{“If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would
+never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not
+that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find
+a way to figure it all out again.”
+
+◊footer{◊index[#:key "Jillette, Penn!book"]{Penn Jillette}, ◊link[1]{◊cite{God, No! Signs You May
+Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales}}◊fn[1]}}
+
+We might call this the “◊index{wipeout test}”. It is true that no religion would pass it, and that
+the laws of physical science probably would. But interestingly, this doesn’t actually say anything
+about a religion’s value or truth. It just reflects that a religion is more purely◊fn[2] a product
+of complex relationships between particular people.
+
+I can illustrate this by applying the wipeout test to ◊index{Canadian Culture}, for example. If
+every single trace of Canadian Culture died out and nothing were passed on, it would never come
+back. This is because Canadian culture, like a religion, is the product of a complex history of the
+interaction of millions of limited human perspectives and their relationships. This says nothing
+about the value of Canadian culture. It doesn’t make sense to say that because of the wipeout test,
+Canadian Culture is somehow “false”.
+
+Of course, many religious people ◊em{would} prefer to think their religion and gods are
+◊em{uniquely} knowable apart from the people that describe them. And of course this is what Jillette
+is pushing back against. But I think maybe there are, or could be, things — contingent,
+irreproducible things — stories, cultures, even gods — that are valuable to us, and help us
+understand true things about ourselves, even though they would never survive Jillette’s test.
+
+◊fndef[1]{Via ◊link[2]{kottke.org}} 
+◊fndef[2]{Science, too, is, in large part, a product of complex relationships between humans.}
+◊url[1]{https://books.google.com/books?id=KsI3sswEg14C&lpg=PR1&pg=PR1#v=onepage&f=false}
+◊url[2]{https://kottke.org/11/12/exact-nonsense}
+

ADDED   articles/live-sparrow.poly.pm
Index: articles/live-sparrow.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/live-sparrow.poly.pm
+++ articles/live-sparrow.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊(define-meta published "2018-11-17")
+
+◊title{The Live Sparrow: Poetry & Translation}
+
+From the little I have seen, I have hopes
+that J. R. R. Tolkien’s soon-to-be published translation of Beowulf
+may do the same thing for the Old English poem 
+that Fitzgerald did for the Persian. 
+For example, here’s Seamus Heaney’s 1999 translation:
+
+◊verse{◊i{Fyrst forð gewát flota wæs on ýðum bát under beorg
+beornas gearwe on stefn stigon — stréamas wundon,}
+
+Time went by, the boat was on water, in close under the cliffs.
+Men climbed eagerly up the gangplank, sand churned in surf…}
+
+Tolkien does something much better with his version:
+
+◊verse{On went the hours: on ocean afloat under cliff was their craft.
+Now climb blithely brave man aboard;
+breakers pounding ground the shingle.}
+
+How much of this is Tolkien 
+and how much is the original? 
+At the time of this writing, we don’t have much to go off of◊fn[1],
+and I know very little Old English, 
+so I could be mistaken; 
+but if Tolkien can look at, for example,
+“stréamas wundon”
+and derive, in English, the music of
+“breakers pounding ground the shingle”, 
+it seems reasonable to hope that the rest of the thing
+will be real English poetry: 
+that is, 
+a living sparrow rather than a stuffed eagle.
+
+◊fndef[1]{These lines are about half of ◊link[1]{the excerpt} that is currently all we have to go
+on: a few lines Tolkien included in an introductory chapter to a 1940 edition of John R. Clark
+Hall’s Beowulf translation. (Notably, Hall, too, took the poetic approach to translation we are
+advocating here, and ◊link[2]{was criticized for it}.)}
+
+◊url[1]{http://www.todaytranslations.com/blog/read-excerpt-tolkiens-beowulf-translation/}
+◊url[2]{http://www.jstor.org/stable/3712638}
+
+
+

ADDED   articles/luculent-marbles.poly.pm
Index: articles/luculent-marbles.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/luculent-marbles.poly.pm
+++ articles/luculent-marbles.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2018-12-03")
+
+◊verse{
+luculent marbles
+pain-lacquered panes tremolo
+one nasal pluck-up}

ADDED   articles/pollen-targets.poly.pm
Index: articles/pollen-targets.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/pollen-targets.poly.pm
+++ articles/pollen-targets.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2015 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2015-09-01")
+
+◊title{Pollen Targets}
+
+I’ve been digging into Pollen. It’s early days yet, but it seems very promising. So I was surprised
+and glad to see this happen today:
+
+◊blockquote{◊link[1]{“New Pollen tutorial:} how to generate multiple outputs (e.g., HTML, plain text,
+LaTeX, and PDF) from one source file.”
+
+◊footer{Matthew Butterick (◊mono{@mbutterick}) in a now-deleted tweet}
+◊url[1]{https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/fourth-tutorial.html}
+}
+
+I tweeted earlier today that this is probably the best web/writing news of the summer, if not the
+year. Yes, that’s subjective. But anyhow, let me explain why I think it’s great.
+
+For at least a few years now I’ve been trying to figure out how a good way to generate a web site
+and a print-ready PDF book from the same source document (◊xref["future-proofing"]{because
+reasons}). Before Pollen, the best route seemed to be: write the documents in ◊link[2]{Markdown},
+and then use a tool like ◊link[3]{Pandoc} to convert that source to HTML and to PDF (via LaTeX).
+
+◊url[2]{https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics}
+◊url[3]{http://pandoc.org/}
+
+The biggest problem is that Markdown is not actually great as a source format. Yes, it’s readable.
+Markdown documents, being plain text, can have a good shelf life. But in practice it’s just not very
+smart, and no one agrees on how to educate it. For example, suppose you want to specify a class for
+an image, so that it floats right. Markdown doesn’t provide a way to do this. Some variants of it
+have added support for it, but no one agrees on what syntax should be used. Whatever variant you
+pick, you better hope that your whole toolchain supports it (in the future as well as now). Just
+about every editor and processor and previewer out there supports their own 92% of what you need
+from Markdown and they each pick a different 8% to leave out. As an author, you really have no
+facility for doing things the way you’d like. Brett Terpstra has some ◊link[4]{good advice} for
+coping with this, but it basically boils down to “keep your source documents as simple as possible
+to avoid running afoul of incompatibilities.” I say boo to that.
+
+◊url[4]{http://brettterpstra.com/2015/08/24/write-better-markdown/}
+
+To use a graphics analogy, using Markdown as a source format for web and print is like creating art
+as a GIF and then trying to upscale to SVG. Pollen offers a completely different way of doing
+things:
+
+◊ol{
+◊item{You decide what kind of semantics your documents need.}
+◊item{You design the markup your documents will use.}
+◊item{You decide exactly what output that markup produces.}
+}
+
+Here’s an example excerpt of one of my documents in Pollen:
+
+◊blockcode|{#lang pollen
+
+◊(define-meta title "Two Voices in a Meadow")
+◊(define-meta doc-publish-date "25/08/2015")
+◊(define-meta author "Richard Wilbur")
+
+◊margin-note{
+In ◊hyperlink["http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/wilbur/
+imageinterview.htm"]{an interview}, he said "the milkweed's speech is
+indeed written in one of my voices and was used for the sister's funeral in
+a genuine and appropriate way. But the other voice --- the 'slob' voice of
+the stone, is also one of my voices."
+}
+
+◊verse{◊poem-heading{A Milkweed}
+Anonymous as cherubs
+Over the crib of God,
+White seeds are floating
+Out of my burst pod.
+What power had I
+Before I learned to yield?
+Shatter me, great wind:
+I shall possess the field.}
+
+}|
+
+The ◊code{◊"◊"tags} above are all functions I write. The ◊code{◊"◊"verse} tag is a good example of
+an advantage of Pollen over Markdown, because Markdown has no facility for typesetting poetry (at
+least, none for setting it differently than source code). For now I’ve defined my ◊code{◊"◊"verse}
+tag to place its contents inside a ◊code{<pre class="verse">} tag which I can style with CSS.
+Someday I might find or need a different way to structure poetry in HTML; if so, I can simply edit
+the function and regenerate the site, without having to change the source documents at all. Another
+good example is YouTube embeds. I could create a ◊code{◊"◊"video} tag that would take a YouTube ID
+and use their latest embed code. When YouTube changes I can update my code to match, the tag remains
+the same.
+
+Pollen was compelling enough when HTML output was all it did. But as of today, you can specify
+multiple targets for your documents, and code the output behavior for each. This means I could take
+a bunch of files like the one above and generate a web page, and a book-ready PDF, and a plain-text
+(dumbed down) Markdown version. If my requirements for any one of those target formats should ever
+change, I simply edit my Pollen code. The document itself can remain unchanged.
+
+There are other things you could do, too. With some programming and some text-to-speech facilities,
+you could include ◊code{.mp3} files as a target, and auto-generate an RSS feed, thus making
+everything you publish in written form into an automatic podcast as well.
+
+With Pollen I finally have a tool I can use to publish to multiple formats where I have complete
+control over both the source markup and the finished result in every format. Of course, you have to
+learn LISP programming to make full use of it, which can be daunting, but I’m having fun doing so.

ADDED   articles/taming-of-the-tigger.poly.pm
Index: articles/taming-of-the-tigger.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/taming-of-the-tigger.poly.pm
+++ articles/taming-of-the-tigger.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,397 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2000-04-23")
+
+◊title{Taming of the Tigger}
+
+◊section{Dramatis Personae}
+
+◊ul{
+◊li{◊caps{Rabbit}, Archbishop of Canterbury}
+◊li{◊caps{PIGLET}, Bishop of Ely}
+◊li{◊caps{TIGGER}, Pistol}
+◊li{◊caps{POOH}, Ensign}
+◊li{◊caps{CHORUS}, Narrator}
+}
+
+◊section{Act I}
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["CHORUS"]{
+Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story
+That I may prompt them; and of such as have,
+I humbly pray them to admit th’excuse of things
+Which cannot in their huge and proper life
+Be here presented. Now we bear Rabbit,
+Piglet, and Pooh toward Rabbit’s porch.
+There is the playhouse now, there you must sit,
+And thence to the forest shall we convey you safe.}
+}
+
+[Enter ◊caps{RABBIT}, ◊caps{PIGLET}, and ◊caps{POOH}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+I’ll tell you, that self Lord Tigger is urged
+That yesterday was like to have bounced against us
+By zany hazard and unnatural humours
+Which him constrain to bouncing acts,
+Scambling, and unquiet time.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{But my lord, how shall we resist him now?}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+It must be thought on. If he bounce against us
+We’re like to lose the better half of our possession:
+For all the temporal lands and carrot gardens
+Which by testament are given to us,
+He would rend the harvest thereof in a twinkling
+A ruin and unprofit.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{This would drink deep.}
+
+◊say["RABBIT"]{’Twould drink the cup and all.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{But what prevention?}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+The courses of his youth promise no change.
+Never came desolation in a flood
+With such heady currents scouring all good,
+Nor never features of landscape so soon lose their seat
+As in the case of Sir Tigger.}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+He ne’er did harm that I heard of;
+O pardon, since that a crooked figure may
+In little place attest a million
+Or, so says good Christopher Robin.◊fn[1]}
+
+◊fndef[1]{The original, literal meaning is that “a nought or zero (a curved figure) is able to
+signify a million (i.e., by converting 100,000 to 1,000,000).” —Craik. I use it in the sense that
+Rabbit may be misjudging Tigger’s character. Pooh must attribute this logic to C. Robin to be
+consistent with his own lack of arithmetical ability.}
+
+◊saylines["PIGLET"]{
+Hearest thou not these weighty things
+That task our thoughts concerning Tigger?}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+The air, a chartered libertine, is still
+And the mute silence lurketh in mine ears
+For bunch of fusty fluff hath therein lodged
+Some whiles since.}
+
+◊saylines["PIGLET"]{
+It must be so, for miracles are ceased,
+And therefore we must needs admit the means
+How Tigger shall be perfected.
+Doth he incline to it or no?}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+He seems indifferent,
+Or rather swaying the more upon our part;
+For I will make an offer to him
+As touching the Hundred Acre Wood
+To hike and march a greater distance
+Than ever did his predecessors depart withal
+At the end of which, by my design
+His bones, a woe, a sore complaint
+He’ll drop his heart into the sink of fear!
+Now we go, to bring our embassy
+To this Tigger same.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{
+We’ll wait upon you.}
+}
+
+[Exeunt]
+
+◊section{Act II}
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["CHORUS"]{
+Now entertain conjecture of a time
+When creeping murmer and the poring fog
+Fills the wide vessel of the Hundred-Acre-Wood.
+The hum of frog and cricket stilly sounds
+O now, who will look and behold
+The pair of travelers in their pacing sad:
+Pooh and Piglet at th’appointed time
+Present themselve by the gazing trees.
+The confident and over-lusty Rabbit
+Does the low-rated Tigger play at dice
+Proud of his planning and secure in soul,
+Hastens impatiently, and poorly ruminates
+The evening’s danger.}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+Cry bother, and chide this cripple, tardy-gaited mist
+Who like a foul and ugly hag
+Doth limp so tediously away:
+A pity this, an approved waste
+For honey bees cease their work in damp,
+Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
+The act of order to a peopled kingdom:
+The civil citizens kneading up honey
+Lay down their burdens, whilst sad-eyed drones
+Stand close together with surly hum.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{ Rabbit may show what outward courage he will, but I believe, as cold a day as ‘tis,
+he could wish himself afore of a stoken hearth, and so I would he were and I by him at all
+adventures, so we were quit here.}
+}
+
+[Enter ◊caps{RABBIT}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+Now sits the fog fair, and we will away!
+(Hushed) Here comes Lord Tigger; good friends, offer nothing here.}
+}
+
+[Enter ◊caps{TIGGER}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["TIGGER"]{
+Ah, an outing shall we have, and present leave!◊fn[2]
+Holdfast is the only dog, my ducks,
+The word is ‘pitch and play,’ yoke-fellows in arms
+Let us to the Forest, like Tartar-squirrels, my boys!}
+
+◊fndef[2]{I am loosly matching Tigger with ◊i{Henry V}’s Pistol. His lines loose some sensicality in
+the conversion, but even the originals are obscure to any modern audience. If spoken in the proper
+mood, the desired effect and meaning will be made somewhat clear.}
+
+◊say["PIGLET"]{Prithee Tigger, stay; the damp is too cold, and for mine own part I have not a case
+of lives. The humour of it is too cold, that is the very plain-song of it.}
+
+◊say["TIGGER"]{Let floods o’erswell and fiends for food howl on!◊fn[3]}
+
+◊fndef[3]{I.e., ‘We are going, come what may!’}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+Come, Piglet, imitate the action of the Tigger!
+Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood
+Disguise small nature with hard favour’d rage;
+Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
+Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
+To his full height. The game’s afoot.
+Follow your spirit, and upon this, Charge!}
+
+◊say["TIGGER"]{On, on, on, on to the breach!}
+}
+
+[Exit ◊caps{TIGGER} — bounds off stage; ◊caps{RABBIT, POOH, PIGLET} hide behind some object;
+◊caps{TIGGER} bounds back in search of them, but, seeking, finds them not]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊say["TIGGER"]{The plain-song is most just, for humours do abound.}
+}
+
+[◊i{Continues seeking}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+My lords, Sir Tigger, jealous of our absence
+Seeks through the camp to find us.}
+
+◊saylines["TIGGER"]{
+Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?
+Note have I within my bearing bones
+That here my rendezvous is quite cut off.◊fn[4]
+Well, home I’ll turn, this hunt resign
+To suck, to suck, the very Extract of Malt to suck!}
+}
+
+◊fndef[4]{Tigger may suspect treachery, but this should not be emphasized. He is here, as in the
+book, carefree and too shallow for much thoughts of conspiracy, not inclined to hold grudges.}
+
+[Exit ◊caps{Tigger}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+[Looking after ◊caps{TIGGER}]
+I give you leave to depart, and if a merry meeting
+May be wished, God prohibit it!
+[Turning again to friends]
+The game’s afoot! To the forest, and hearthside then,
+Where ne’er from Borealis’ frosty soup arrive’d more happy men.
+Be copy now to men of grosser blood
+And teach them how to march, for we’ll flee this dewy flood.
+Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.}
+}
+
+[All exit stage right, reappear sometime later as though lost]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+As manhood shall compound, these phantom paths
+Have got the voice in heaven for twistiness;
+Fair and fortunate are we
+That these our native pastures be
+Else, being lost, naught but these boding trunks
+Could we ever hope to see…
+[Aside] They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
+But bearlike I must fight the course.◊fn[5]}
+}
+
+◊fndef[5]{By this aside to the audience, Rabbit means us to believe that none of this is his fault.}
+
+[All exit stage right and appear again in the same manner]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod;
+But here is that selfsame sand-pit again.}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+Though ‘tis no wisdom to confess so much,
+My directional sense is much enfeebled.}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+By our travels, late and circuitous, I this infer
+That many paths having full reference
+To one arrival may work contrariously
+Without defeat; therefore, good Rabbit
+Let us conversely search for this sand-pit
+And thus come home in safe array,
+Where before we sought the home and found th’other.◊fn[6]
+If we with such just logic prepended
+Cannot gain again guide our footsteps thither
+Let us be worried, and our titles lose
+All name of hardiness and policy.}
+
+◊fndef[6]{Here, as in the original, Pooh suggests that if, when searching for home, they keep
+finding the sand-pit, they should search for the sand-pit and thus they might find home.}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+You do unbend your noble strength, to think
+So brainsickly of things. Prithee, peace!
+I dare do all that may become a rabbit.
+Who dares do more is none.}
+
+◊saylines["PIGLET"]{
+Defend your glove, my liege: therfore
+Divide we our happy company into two,
+Whereof take you twenty-pace from this spot
+And thence, sand-pit seeking, return again.}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+What beast was’t then
+That made you break this enterprise to me?
+Come, I shall about it.}
+}
+
+[Exit ◊caps{Rabbit}. Long pause whiles they wait for him.]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+By the white hand of a lady, let us be going,
+That we find ourselves safe once more,
+Secure at home and in good compass.}
+
+◊saylines["PIGLET"]{
+Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath,
+For you must needs be out of all compass
+In more acceptations of th’phrase than one.
+Know you the predestinate path, of which Rabbit despaired?}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+Despair thy charm
+That palterest us in a double sense:
+But scaly vessels of stored-up honey
+Hath rung the night’s yawning peal;
+My gaping maw doth taste the sound of it
+Tht once was drown’d by Rabbit’s voice.
+All his senses have but human conditions.}
+
+◊saylines["PIGLET"]{
+Yeah, such an antic does not amount to a man,
+And the gaffer says true “The empty vessel
+Makes the greatest sound.”}
+
+◊saylines["POOH"]{
+It is now eleven o’clock. Let me see, by twelve,
+We shall have us each three honeypots.
+Come, shall we about it?}
+}
+
+[Exeunt]
+
+◊section{Act III}
+
+[Enter ◊caps{RABBIT}]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT (cold, spooked)"]{
+Is this a sand-pit which I see before me?
+I’ve passed thee thrice, yet I see thee still!
+Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
+To feeling as to sight, or art thou but
+A picture of the mind, a false creation?
+Thou marshals’t me the way that I am going.
+It is this circular business which informs thus
+To my mind. Now o’er the one-half world
+Nature seems dead, and wicked sights abuse.
+O Lord, think not upon the fault
+I made in design against Sir Tigger,
+For I have issued more contrite tears
+Than his bouncing crimes would tally,
+Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
+Since that my penitence comes after all
+Imploring pardon. Hark!}
+}
+
+[Noise off-stage]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+Peace, ‘Twas the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
+Which givest the sternest good-night.}
+}
+
+[Enter ◊caps{TIGGER}, bounces ◊caps{RABBIT} by jostling him in a stagey sort of way]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["TIGGER"]{
+Permafoy! I have and do hold the only Rabbit,
+As truly, but not as duly - as bird doth sing on bow;
+Woulds’t thou have me fold up Parca’s fatal web?◊fn[7]}
+
+◊fndef[7]{Latin, “few words,” part of the proverbial “few words are best.” Used elliptically by
+Pistol in ◊i{Henry V}, 2.1.80.}
+
+◊saylines["RABBIT"]{
+Never did faithful pilgrim more rejoice
+At the discovery of most dangerous distress
+Than I do at this hour rejoice myself,
+Prevented from an endless enterprise.}
+
+◊saylines["TIGGER"]{
+Pauca verba, there’s enough8. Go to,
+A dinner shall we have, and present pay,
+And friendship shall combine and brotherhood.
+I shall live by Rabbit, and Rabbit shall live by me.
+Is not this just? Give me thy hand.}
+}
+
+[Exeunt]
+
+◊dialogue{
+◊saylines["CHORUS"]{
+Thus far, with rough and all unable pen
+Our bending author hath persued the story
+In little room confining as little men
+Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
+Small time, but in that small most strangely lived
+Though the world’s best garden he’d achieve
+By unbouncing Tigger, Rabbit did not succeed,
+But learned a lesson, though his soil fill with weeds,
+Which here our stage hath shown; and for their sake
+In your fair minds, let this acceptance take.}
+}
+
+◊i{Finis}

ADDED   articles/the-ride.poly.pm
Index: articles/the-ride.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/the-ride.poly.pm
+++ articles/the-ride.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2000 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2000-10-27")
+
+◊verse[#:title "The Ride"]{
+Half the creaking crickets ’twixt the poplars and the pine  
+Own the frog their master yet they fear with him to dine.  
+Wherefore the fear? The reason’s clear: the crickets have no spine.
+
+Wild crows are always hungry for they hate all that they scour:  
+Apples make them pucker and they think the grapes too sour.  
+So with empty plates they crow ’till late, long past the supper hour.
+
+The squirrel in the hollow has a mind that’s very shallow,  
+His cheeks are very puffy, for he oft forgets to swallow;  
+Ere autumn ends, he downs it then, and sleeps on leafy pillow.
+
+Robbins every morning have to wrestle with a hassle:  
+In the summer all their feathers scratch their throats like little thistles;  
+Do these rusty-coloured feathers cause their early-morning whistle?  
+Eh?}

ADDED   articles/those-empty-altoids-tins.poly.pm
Index: articles/those-empty-altoids-tins.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/those-empty-altoids-tins.poly.pm
+++ articles/those-empty-altoids-tins.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,312 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2000-03-13")
+
+◊title{Those Empty Altoids Tins}
+
+Without dwelling too much on the negative side, as is normally our tendency under our 68% Vitriol
+Policy, we would address the issue of the popular ◊link[1]{Altoids peppermints}. It is a frustrating
+thing that when purchasing Altoids, you are forced to pay for yet another little Altoid tin
+canister. Whether it is true that this is because Callard and Bowser, a British company dating back
+to 1780, desires to spite Americans in its own petty way for winning the War for Independence, we
+cannot be sure; we are told that Altoids are available only in tins even for fellow consumers in the
+U.K. So we do not lend any credence to this theory. We wish, though, that C&B would offer some
+alternative packaging, such as burlap sacks for bulk buyers.
+
+◊url[1]{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altoids}
+
+The bottom line is that any regular Altoids ingester soon acquires a small mountain of little tins.
+What is to be done with all these little metal boxes with the rounded edges? We have here compiled
+a comprehensive list of 94 Ways to Use Empty Altoids Tins. Some are humorous, some almost practical,
+others are just barely alive, but there are none of the obvious cop-out items which tend to creep
+into lists like these (such as “Use it to think of 94 ways to use it, har har”).
+
+Ahem.
+
+◊ol{
+◊li{Use them to catch the fat grease from your grill}
+
+◊li{Kitchen and bathroom decorations}
+
+◊li{Holds all that loose pocket change - increases jingling sound}
+
+◊li{Tray for computer screws during an upgrade}
+
+◊li{Line your garden with Altoid tins instead of bricks}
+
+◊li{Archive old sales receipts}
+
+◊li{Insert in soles of shoes to make yourself look taller}
+
+◊li{Don’t attach blinking lights and leave them laying around suspiciously at airports. Attach
+blinking lights and leave them suspiciously at other places, but not airports.}
+
+◊li{You could, however, attach a little handle and check it as luggage on your next flight. The best
+part comes in the claim area when the tiny Altoids suitcase comes down the chute…}
+
+◊li{Target practice for gun owners}
+
+◊li{Tape them together to create a suit of body armor}
+
+◊li{People named “Al”: cover up the ◊caps{T-O-I-D-S} and use as a name badge}
+
+◊li{Better yet, if your last name happens to be Altoids, tape it to your mailbox.}
+
+◊li{Short-term piggy-banks — easy to open, 0% APY}
+
+◊li{Makes for some good-looking ◊image-link["altoids-radio.gif"]{ham radio electronics}}
+
+◊li{Punch holes in them, use for keeping insects and small animals such as hamsters}
+
+◊li{Leave them on the street downtown and watch people foolishly pick them up and find that they are
+empty. (Even better: glue them to the sidewalk.)}
+
+◊li{Fill with plaster, fasten shut: hockey puck}
+
+◊li{Return to your local grocery store for a nickel (your mileage may vary)}
+
+◊li{Tie them to your fingers to help you remember things}
+
+◊li{Test the theory of evolution: place two unmodified paper clips inside, and shake vigorously for
+two billion years. See if they ever link together as a result of this process.}
+
+◊li{Fill with hand lotion and carry it in your purse.}
+
+◊li{Great candidates for subjects of modern surreal art (in fact, do any of these and take some
+photos; you should have no problem obtaining grant money from the NEA)}
+
+◊li{Insert in boxes of wrapped gifts; the added noise when shaking the present will confuse the
+recipient as to what’s inside}
+
+◊li{Tape to your dog’s tail for interesting effects when it wags}
+
+◊li{Just married? Tie them to your car’s bumper instead of tired old Campbell’s soup cans}
+
+◊li{About to get married? Drop on one knee and present the engagement ring to your girl in an
+Altoids tin! [Turns out this has been done! See the Addendum.]}
+
+◊li{Use as spacers for table or chair legs on very unlevel surfaces}
+
+◊li{Has anyone tried seeing if they ◊link[2]{do anything nifty in a microwave}?}
+
+◊url[2]{http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/weird/microexp.html}
+
+◊li{Callard & Bowser would like to keep this a secret, but these little tins can actually hold M&M’s
+too!}
+
+◊li{If you’re camping and you catch a small animal such as a rabbit, fish or ferret, you can cook the
+raw meat by putting pieces of it in Altoids tins and placing the tin in the glowing hot embers of
+your campfire for awhile.}
+
+◊li{When hiking through the forest, leave a trail of tins to prevent getting lost.}
+
+◊li{Great for housing that ◊link[3]{tiny new web server}}
+
+◊url[3]{http://web.archive.org/web/20060818015953/http://www-ccs.cs.umass.edu/~shri/iPic.html}
+
+◊li{You could place a microphone inside an Altoids tin and use it for espionage; it is likely,
+however, that the tin will be picked up and opened if seen.}
+
+◊li{While it’s still full of mints, stick it inside your tennis shoes or gym bag to offset the
+odor.}
+
+◊li{Goldfish coffin}
+
+◊li{Cry into them when you realize you’re paying almost 3 cents per mint.}
+
+◊li{◊i{Such a simple tin; / It could surely inspire / many a haiku}}
+
+◊li{Fill with emergency spare cash and tape securely behind your knee or under your arm}
+
+◊li{Open the tin and look inside the lid: handy low-resolution travel mirror!}
+
+◊li{Use as bookmarks in heavy volumes such as the Yellow Pages}
+
+◊li{Stress reliever for the kind of people for whom those little spongy balls just aren’t enough}
+
+◊li{Enhance your clarity of speech by placing an Altoid tin inside your mouth while you repeat
+simple phrases}
+
+◊li{Create your own checker board 2′ 8″ on a side (each location 4″ square) and use them as checker
+pieces (use tins from cinnamon or wintergreen Altoids for the black pieces).}
+
+◊li{Fill them with sand and stack them up to mitigate flooding}
+
+◊li{Tie them together to create a wind chime}
+
+◊li{Pop the tin into a scanner, scan it into your computer, fool around with it in an image program,
+and ◊image-link["altoids-hilarious-im-dying.gif"]{put the results on your web site}.}
+
+◊li{With the red and green colors, they are excellent Christmas ornaments.}
+
+◊li{Find anagrams for “Altoids”: ◊caps{TAIL SOD, SO TIDAL, SODA TIL, IS A DOLT, SAD TOIL}, and
+◊caps{SAIL DOT}}
+
+◊li{Status symbol}
+
+◊li{Put some wheels on them, fill with metal weights and have an Altoids Derby Race.}
+
+◊li{Tie on the end of a long string to create a plumb line; you can hang it from the top of
+a building to see if the building is tilted at all.}
+
+◊li{◊image-link["altoids-camera.jpg"]{Carry case for the Pentax Optio S digital camera}}
+
+◊li{Use them to store small condiments such as olives or chopped onions when you run out of
+Tupperware}
+
+◊li{Show that you support halitosis research by wearing one on your lapel}
+
+◊li{Find anagrams for “Callard & Bowser”: ◊caps{A SCREWBALL ROD, BOLD EAR SCRAWL}, and
+◊caps{LARS BE RAW COLD}.}
+
+◊li{If you work at a bank drive-thru and for some reason those plastic tubes break or are lost, use
+Altoids tins instead!}
+
+◊li{Learn to juggle them and balance them on your chin for parties}
+
+◊li{Altoids tins stay wrinkle free without ironing!}
+
+◊li{Make the top halves of the tins into light switch and outlet cover plates}
+
+◊li{Put it up to your ear: you can hear the sea!}
+
+◊li{If, like many in my extended family, you accidentally lop off a finger in the workshop, keep it
+in the tin until you get to the clinic.}
+
+◊li{Makes excellent, durable roofing material}
+
+◊li{Tape them to the back of your telephone handset to make it easier to rest it on your shoulder
+while talking.}
+
+◊li{Casually take the tin out of your pocket and look at the reflection in the lid to see if there’s
+anyone suspicious behind you.}
+
+◊li{Find out the depth of a cave pit or the height of a building by dropping the tin from the top
+and counting the number of seconds until it hits the bottom. Like other physical objects on Earth,
+the tin accelerates at 9.8 meters/sec/sec.}
+
+◊li{Use it as a hopscotch thingie. It can even hold the chalk when you’re done.}
+
+◊li{Ever notice those hip, tiny new backpack/purses? Take this fashion trend to its logical
+conclusion and strap an Altoids tin to your back for those trips to the mall.}
+
+◊li{Saw off one end and make a pocket protector}
+
+◊li{FBI agents: instead of those little wallets, put your badge and ID inside an Altoids tin. Looks
+great when you flash it at people for whose houses you have a search warrant.}
+
+◊li{Hide them inside snowballs for an added punch}
+
+◊li{If you’re shipwrecked and on a deserted island, why not send a message-in-an-Altoids-tin, rather
+than a message-in-a-bottle?}
+
+◊li{Or, use the underside of the lid to reflect the sun and signal to passing ships and airplanes.}
+
+◊li{Create a weekly pill organizer: label seven Altoids tins with the days of the week.}
+
+◊li{Bake muffins or other pastries in them! (Talking of which, has anyone explored the culinary
+possibilities of the Altoids themselves?)}
+
+◊li{Look for cultish insignia or other signs of conspiracies on the tin}
+
+◊li{Punch holes through them and stick them on the spokes of your bicycle’s wheels}
+
+◊li{Spook a friend by placing a tin under their sheets (this only works for very excitable people)}
+
+◊li{Rumor has it that placing a pile of three or four on your electric meter will slow it down,
+lowering your electric bill}
+
+◊li{Sniff the leftover dust for a “high” almost as invigorating as that of Kool-Aid}
+
+◊li{Fill them with ice, and place them in your pop cooler; they help keep the cans cold for longer
+lengths of time and the cooler doesn’t get all full of water when the ice melts.}
+
+◊li{Plus, if someone gets injured at the picnic, you can use them as ice packs to reduce swelling.}
+
+◊li{If you filled them with something hot, such as Cream of Wheat, you could use them to warm your
+feet on cold winter nights.}
+
+◊li{Put them in the food-shelf bin at your grocery store. (Mean and cheap, you say? I don’t think
+so! Look how handy they are!)}
+
+◊li{If you attend a small church, have the ushers pass Altoid tins down the aisles instead of
+offering plates}
+
+◊li{They sure beat spoons for digging your way out of prison}
+
+◊li{They won’t hold your sunglasses, but they work great for monocles}
+
+◊li{Separate the top and bottom halves, tape them together on one of the short edges, and use as
+a sleep blinder for bus and airplane trips.}
+
+◊li{Use them to scratch off your lottery ticket (if you actually buy lottery tickets)}
+
+◊li{Start your campfire by striking pieces of flint against it}
+
+◊li{They make good phylacteries}
+
+◊li{Use as a makeshift ruler (they are about 2.25″ by 3.75″)}
+
+◊li{Make and sell doll furniture. And stay away from me.}
+
+◊li{Walk around with them balanced on your head to improve your posture.}
+}
+
+◊note[#:date "2001-03-30"]{
+Since the original issue of this finite set, our mercurial readers have submitted a number of supplementary suggestions and anecdotes regarding further uses of the indefatigable Altoids Tin.
+
+◊newthought{Chris W. writes} with a suitably dubious and fairly obvious addition: “Cover up the ◊caps{-OIDS}
+and mount it onto your keyboard creating an easy-access Alt key! With convenient storage unit!” Why
+didn't I think of that? If only there was a brand called Ctrloids, we could make a keyboard all
+those old Emacs users would just love.
+
+◊newthought{Eclectus posted} another good idea to the message board: “We have a white board that was not
+metallic, and we needed it to be able to stick magnets to it, so we superglued 81 altoids boxes to
+the back to the board, making it quite useful, if not quite heavy.” Not to mention that it will now
+float if you accicdentally drop it in a lake.
+
+◊newthought{Shawn Rutledge, a} true hardware hacker, alerts us to the feat of his ◊link['pws]{power supply housed
+in an Altoids tin}. 
+
+◊url['pws]{http://web.archive.org/web/20010423034908/http://cx47646-a.phnx1.az.home.com:80/~ecloud/journal/altoids.html}
+
+◊newthought{In another} message board post, Sugarboots responds to my query regarding Cooking with Altoids in
+item 75: “I was on a Slim Fast diet about four years ago and thought my chocolate shake could use
+a peppermint altoid zip as I am quite fond of the chocolate/mint combo. I used the blender to mix
+everything, but was disappointed with the taste. I drank it anyway, because as you can imagine I was
+pretty hungry and grouchy. At that time cinnamon was not available, but I think cinnamon would be
+tastier since they seem to be sweeter (Werther’s hard toffee candies taste pretty good in the shake
+though).”
+
+This is disappointing news, but perhaps there are other approaches, such as leaving the Altoids
+unground and using them in pastries, or in place of crutons in salads. After some other comments,
+Sugarboots adds another idea: “If your sinuses are tightly closed from a cold or allergies, eating
+about 10 peppermint altoids at one time will open them up in no time.”
+
+◊newthought{Says Graham Bartlett}:
+
+◊blockquote{“And where do you get cinnamon Altoids from? I’m in the UK, and it’s hard enough finding
+somewhere that sells mint ones. I think it’s actually all a conspiracy run by the French, who hate
+both of us…”}
+
+◊newthought{It turns out} I was not being as original as I thought when in item #27 I suggested using a tin to
+present an engagement ring. Mark Pettigrew writes:
+
+◊blockquote{“You may be amused to know that I actually did # 27 on your list. It helped to create
+a perfect surprise when I proposed to my wife (of course, she loves Altoids too). I proposed at an
+eventin Providence, RI called the ‘WaterFire’. They lit small bonfires in the middle of the river
+cutting through Providence, music in the background, etc. Very beautiful at night (see
+www.waterfire.com). Anyway, I brought her out on a bridge overlooking the fires and asked her if she
+wanted an Altoid. She said yes to the Altoids and me.”}
+
+In a seperate message, Mark noted that the Altoids tin was not actually empty at the time; but we
+are willing to overlook this. Note that if you plan on imitating this example, take extra care not
+to drop the ring in the river as he almost did :-)
+}
+
+◊note[#:date "2011-06-20" #:author "Stephanie"]{
+My little sister is in third grade and she had to make an instrument for music class. We wanted to
+do something that was small and unique. So I came up with taking sand paper and putting it on two
+tins. Then as a double I put rice in it to be a shaker. So in the end we had a shaker/scraper.}

ADDED   articles/what-should-people-do-with-old-journals.poly.pm
Index: articles/what-should-people-do-with-old-journals.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/what-should-people-do-with-old-journals.poly.pm
+++ articles/what-should-people-do-with-old-journals.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2019-04-11")
+
+◊title{What Should People Do With Old Journals?}
+
+When I die, I’ll leave behind a lot of ◊index{journals} and notebooks. These may be of
+interest to my immediate family, but they won’t exactly be great leisure reading. The only obvious
+choices are to keep them in a box in the attic, or eventually throw them out.
+
+There ought to be a third choice. Even the most mundane journal has great value simply because it
+contains lots of historical information about current thinking, lifestyle habits, values, and events,
+things which change wildly over long time periods.
+
+On the receiving end, suppose you inherit your great-grandfather’s journal; he has been dead for
+decades and you never knew him personally. If you can find the time, you pore over it for an hour or
+two, deciphering the handwriting. You learn some facts about him and how he looked at things. What
+happens after that?
+
+I have an idea that there should be an ◊index[#:key "archives"]{archive}, a public repository for
+things like this. You could send in your great-grandfather’s journal for use by future historians.
+They would digitize or transcribe it, analyze it, and tag it with metadata about who wrote it, when
+they wrote it, and generally what topics they wrote about. They could allow you to specify that it
+must remain private until a specified date, and provide you with a digital copy, or even a nice hard
+copy if you wanted to pay a little extra.
+
+This would give researchers a huge resource to draw upon, and allow the full value of old journals
+(the sentimental ◊em{and} the historic value) to be realized, without compromising anyone’s
+privacy.

ADDED   articles/what-you-might-have-done.poly.pm
Index: articles/what-you-might-have-done.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/what-you-might-have-done.poly.pm
+++ articles/what-you-might-have-done.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2003 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "2003-07-07")
+
+◊title{What You Might Have Done}
+
+◊caps{You had} just gone into the den to grab your coffee mug, which you’d left there after
+breakfast; but when you saw the ◊index[#:key "paperbacks"]{dingy paperback}, your presence of mind
+failed you, and you paused. It somehow recalled the scratchy, stuffy days of your elementary
+education, and it rather sickened you. You looked out the window: it was raining. I have to get out
+of here, you thought. You might have stood there all morning, but in the rapidly thickening clouds
+of your mind, something told you to back out of the room and take a breath. And immediately the
+skies parted, you laughed at yourself, and you were home again, with twenty years safely between you
+and the starched collars of your youth.
+
+◊index[#:key "drowning"] This is what a drowning man must feel like when he’s gone down, down, and felt
+the water entering his lungs and the lights going out, and then been hauled up and given his life
+back by some brave stranger. You’re a little more grateful for having gone through it. Maybe when
+he’s got over it, the nearly-drowned man will go back every now and again, and have a look at the
+lake that nearly was his grave, and take fresh joy in the fact that it didn’t get him after all.
+That’s fine up to a point; but it isn’t healthy to do it too often.
+
+But there are differences between you and the drowning man. You had friends at the bottom of your
+lake, people you knew and joked with and who had some good points about them. You can never go back
+and see them; for one thing your soul revolts at revisiting that episode in any way, shape or form;
+and for another, they are gone. It’s too bad they didn’t all turn out like you. They would have been
+happier.
+
+And maybe in another five or ten years, you will go back into that den, perhaps to pack its contents
+into boxes for a move, and you will come across more dingy paperbacks and yellowed notebooks. Some
+of them are missing; you loaned them away, and truth be told you’re actually glad they were never
+returned. You will never read them; and someday the sight and smell of them may throw you into
+a gray reverie from which you never emerge. Listen! If you have any sense, you will burn them in the
+firepit and then take a short walk with your wife. Better a small loss of sentiment than the
+straightjacket.

ADDED   articles/when-even-in-the-dell-was-green.poly.pm
Index: articles/when-even-in-the-dell-was-green.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/when-even-in-the-dell-was-green.poly.pm
+++ articles/when-even-in-the-dell-was-green.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "1999-04-27")
+
+◊verse[#:title "When Even In the Dell Was Green"]{
+When even in the dell was green
+Atop the hills and in between,
+One might have heard, but scarcely seen
+A ◊index[#:key "group singing"]{choir} in the weeds.
+
+The ◊index{frogs} they were, of voice most clear,
+And all of them had keenest ear
+And sang aloud in harmony
+Their ageless croaking rhapsodies.
+
+They sang alone without piano;
+Many bass, but few soprano
+The toad among them was a tenor,
+Of noble bearing and demeanor.
+
+When one night they were at the parish
+Dressed up in tuxedos garish
+Performing in that giant hall,
+A sudden silence did befall!
+The audience began to quiet,
+The air was tense, I won’t deny it;
+Before the first note had been sung
+But was held in waiting on the tongue,
+
+A noise there was upon stage left
+That left their speech and wits bereft:
+Footsteps padding on the stage
+And up to the conductor’s cage
+There walked a small, disdainful ◊index[#:key "Fly (insect)!musical conductor"]{fly}
+With glasses thick upon his eyes.
+
+He paged through his conductor’s score;
+(The awe-struck singers stared the more)
+Motioned the music to be passed,
+And raised baton in stern address!
+
+The baton came down, the first chord rang,
+The fly drew all effort from each note that they sang;
+The score was matchless, each bar was inerrant
+The frogs watched as though children,
+The fly-maestro the parent.
+
+Now comes the solo! Hark to the thrill
+Of the tenor in wonder! His voices the hall fills!
+In accent how prudent! In tone how sublime
+As he masters his part for the very first time;
+And now the fly bids him his last note sustain
+And the frog pours it forth with all of his main!
+Still he sustains it! Can such a thing last?
+Deep inside his lungs reaches for every last gasp,
+And the fly bids him muster, with quavering palm
+Till at last all is quiet, in an instant is calm.
+
+Then in joyous resolve, and as per the score,
+The reprisal rebounds grander now than before!
+The choir in section and unison spans
+What notes can be sung by amphibians;
+Then finally finish in massive chords sage
+That continue through every last bar of the page;
+Then the fly bids them stop! with a flick of his hand,
+And were the song great, yet the silence more grand.
+
+All movement was settled, all sound became mute,
+For the sound they’d just heard was one none could refute;
+The choir in wonder at what they’d locuted,
+The audience quiet, completely confuted.
+At last the conductor by degrees turned about
+To face that great crowd, who all shouted aloud;
+With a bow to his fans and a nod to the frogs,
+He gave a high buzz, and he flew himself out.}

ADDED   articles/why-america-should-conquer-canada.poly.pm
Index: articles/why-america-should-conquer-canada.poly.pm
==================================================================
--- articles/why-america-should-conquer-canada.poly.pm
+++ articles/why-america-should-conquer-canada.poly.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+#lang pollen
+
+◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved.
+
+◊(define-meta published "1999-12-16")
+◊title{Why America Should Conquer Canada}
+
+It is bothersome, though not surprising, that the ‘◊index{Canada} issue’ has not been addressed by
+presidential candidates in America for decades. This issue presents a number of obvious problems and
+a single (equally obvious) solution for them all.
+
+We at ◊caps{JIPW} have been advocating the takeover of Canada since the latter part of the last
+century, and recent developments have only made us more confident. Notwithstanding, however, we have
+found the issue to be an emotionally and politically charged one.
+
+Reader, before you continue, you must take note that I am a Minnesotan, whose father and his father
+before him were born in Canada; and who has many Canadian relatives. It is commonly known that
+‘Duecks’ are as plentiful in Winnepeg as ‘Johnsons’ in the St. Paul. Canada and America have an
+entanglement of fate comparable to that of England and France in the days of the Plantaganets. In
+attaining Canada we do not make ourselves the enemy and despiser of it, but we love Canada such that
+we would have it all ours.
+
+The decidedly simple editors of our contemporary publications, such as the Pequod Lake Conifer and
+Gazette have raised the question of how assimilation of Canada could be in the best interests of our
+prosperous Republic. First, as a matter of human compassion, we ought to feel compelled to save the
+Canadian citizens from their arguably socialist government and failed economy. Their dollar is worth
+roughly half of its robust American equivelant, and the majority of their money is fed, via heavy
+taxes, into a half-baked nationalized health-care system as well as a ponderous number of other
+foolish programs.
+
+The truth is, Canada has shot itself in the foot and is in desperate need of help. Consider the
+resident Frenchmen who, through a fluke in the Canadian system of representation, enjoy an unfair
+leverage in matters of State. This has produced in them no end of arrogance, and they stubbornly try
+to subvert the spread of the English language through stupid legislation. It was reported not long
+since that a man could not, without heavy fines, place a sign exclusively in English on his
+storefront. All signs, down to a piece of cardboard with ‘OPEN’ written in marker, must be in
+English and French. And additionally, people have to deal with all sorts of beeheaded regulations
+involving the relative sizes of the letters, and so on. The whole nation of Canada is shackled with
+intrinsic governmental flaws of this kind. It would be prudent to flush the whole parliamentary
+system and its accruement of fusty laws and bureaucracies altogether down the toilet, and to bring
+Canada under American jurisdiction.
+
+An assimilation of Canada would also solve the longstanding and very frustrating problem of fishing
+rights in the Northwest Angle, a small fragment of Minnesota which was isolated from the rest of the
+state by a surveilance and navigational error. When Canada has been conquered, the Angle can be made
+a part of the new State of Ontario, and everyone can enjoy equal fishing rights as American
+citizens. The removal of hassles involving crossing borderlines, &c., would also be a boon to the
+locals at the Angle, as well as the general shipping economy which revolves about the Great Lakes.
+
+Finally, this strategic move would put an end once and for all to the cruel practice of forcing the
+Canadian schoolchildren to try to learn the meandering national anthem, ‘O Canada.’ We would also be
+able to eliminate this confusing strain from the sports stadiums in games at which the Canadian
+baseball and hockey teams participate.
+
+◊note[#:date "2013-11-11" #:disposition "† dumb"]{
+
+I perked up a bit when I read ◊link['n1]{Today's Question} from MPR News: ◊link['n2]{Should the U.S.
+and Canada merge?}
+
+◊url['n1]{https://twitter.com/MPRnews/status/399893023204859905}
+◊url['n2]{http://blogs.mprnews.org/todays-question/2013/11/should-the-u-s-and-canada-merge/}
+
+I probably wouldn’t write such a thing again today, even as satire. It’s not because the Canadian
+and US dollars have been at par for a couple of years now, nor because 32-year old me understands
+better than 18-year old me how a weak dollar can actually be good for an economy. And — you’ll have
+to trust me on this — it’s not even because I’m married to a Canadian. Even before I met my wife, in
+the wake of the Iraq war and having learned a little actual history, I woke up to the fact that
+American hegemony is too real and too stupid to make for good humor.
+
+Besides which. My sense these days is that America is ◊em{already} such a ◊link['n3]{thinly
+held-together coalition of such wildly different economies, values, and legal cultures} that I’m not
+sure it can be governed fairly or effectively even without any additions.
+
+◊url['n3]{http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html}
+}
+
+◊note[#:date "2015-09-16"]{
+
+Apparently there was a brief period in the 1920s when America and Canada were both secretly drafting
+plans to invade each other. Tracy Mumford, reporting for Minnesota Public Radio:
+
+◊blockquote{“In 1921, a Canadian lieutenant by the name of Buster Brown drafted ‘Defence Scheme No.
+1.’ Despite ‘defense’ in the title, it was ‘a full-on invasion plan,’ according to Kevin Lippert,
+the author of War Plan Red… In the end, he proposed a five-pronged attack. In the west, Canadian
+troops would take Seattle and Portland. In the east, the Quebecois would occupy Albany. Maine would
+be reclaimed, as would the Great Lakes. In the Midwest, Brown’s plan called for ‘Prairie Command’ to
+swing through Fargo and then head south to invade Minneapolis and St. Paul.”}
+
+◊figure["ca-invasion-plan-x.jpg"]{“Defence Scheme No. 1” from ◊link['n4]{War Plan Red} By Kevin
+Lippert}
+
+◊url['n4]{https://www.librarything.com/work/16065817}
+}