Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

“on a dark desert highway cool wind in my hair / warm smell of colitas rising up through the air”

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:45:37 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“i’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror / it must be exhausting”

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:00:12 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“my heart is full of love and desire for you! / so come on down and do what you’ve got to do!”

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:51:45 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“they say this cat is a bad mutha— (shut yo’ mouth!) / i’m talkin’ ’bout shaft (then we can dig it)”

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:20:47 GMT

Following up on this post, this year for April Fools the Monterey Bay Aquarium posted under the Kriller Waves Radio label a 1-hour mix of anchovy, sardine, and mackerel schools moshing to thrash metal.

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“(we better) stop / children, what’s that sound? / everybody look what’s going down”

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:18:56 GMT

It was a good seder—smaller than some years, but good.

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“i would search everywhere / just to hear your call / and walk upon stranger roads than this one”

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:15:40 GMT

Links to adventures at many scales:

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“you’re the priestess i must confess / those little red panties they pass the test”

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:35:59 GMT

For Poetry Monday, dipping back a few millenia:

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“it’s not far down to paradise / at least it’s not for me / if the wind is right you can sail away”

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:45:06 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“what’s it all for / you better live now / before the grim reaper come knocking on your door”

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:53:33 GMT

Holy crap, how did I only notice this AFTER posting yesterday’s links?!? The people who brought us Krill Waves Radio posted at the start of last April a 1-hour mix of skeleton shrimp to headbanging to instrumental metal, under the Kriller Waves Radio label.

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“like a wire on a spool i keep on unrolling / a single thread that seems to unwind and unwind”

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:10:10 GMT

A few more musical links:

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“the air so heavy and dry/ strange voices are saying (what do they say)/ things i can’t understand”

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:44:56 GMT

This famous post is doing the rounds again:

my favorite thing i’ve learned in college is that way back in ancient china there was this poet/philosopher guy who wrote this whole pretentious poem about how enlightened he was that was like “the eight winds cannot move me” blahblahblah and he was really proud of it so he sent it to his friend who lived across the lake and then his friend sends it back and just writes “FART” (or the ancient Chinese equivalent) on it and the guy was SO MAD he travels across the lake to chew his friend out and when he gets there his friend says “wow. the eight winds cannot move you, but one fart sends you across the lake”

This story is so Chinese.

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“the moon and the stars / were the gifts you gave / to the dark, and the endless skies”

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:49:13 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“windshield wipers slapping time holding bobby’s hand in mine / we sang every song that driver knew”

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:44:32 GMT

A few musical links, from various traditions:

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“got to be good-looking because he’s so hard to see / come together right now over me”

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:42:59 GMT

Speaking of Sayers’ writing ability, as a name of a Victorian bust decorating an Oxford college hall, the Reverend Melchisedek Entwistle is just about pitch perfect.

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“all i’m asking in return, honey / is to give me my propers when you get home”

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:15:03 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“sit down girl! i think i love you! / no get up, girl! show me what you can do!”

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:27:05 GMT

Have His Carcase has one of the classic opening paragraphs of literature:

The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth. After being acquitted of murdering her lover, and, indeed, in consequence of that acquittal, Harriet Vane found all three specifics abundantly at her disposal; and although Lord Peter Wimsey, with a touching faith in tradition, persisted day in and day out in presenting the bosom for her approval, she showed no inclination to recline upon it.

That’s up there with Pride and Prejudice.

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“your loneliness / like a heartbeat drives you crazy / in the stillness of remembering”

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:55:14 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“this is my desire / consume me like a fire / ’cause i just want something beautiful / to touch me”

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:50:05 GMT

A few things that people might want to know:

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“all we have to do now / is take these lies and make them true somehow”

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:14:30 GMT

(I’ve no idea how much sense this will make if you don’t know the book in question.)

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“the day bleeds / into nightfall / and you’re not here / to get me through it all”

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:03:48 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“vuelvo al sur / como se vuelve siempre al amor, / vuelvo a vos / con mi deseo, con mi temor”

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 15:34:49 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“life is very short and there’s no time / for fussing and fighting my friend”

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 15:47:15 GMT

I’m an aloha shirt kind of guy. Not all of my wardrobe is brightly floral—I need a few more subdued patterns for less informal occasions, such as starting work in an office where I haven’t confirmed aloha is acceptable business casual wear. But a fair number are, most of them tasteful.

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“the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls / and tenement halls / and whispered”

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:55:19 GMT

For Poetry Monday:

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“mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids/in fact it’s cold as hell and there’s no one there”

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:58:13 GMT

I’ve had this quote in my scratch file for a few years, waiting for me to find something to say about it. Except, I’ve got nothing that it doesn’t say itself, and better:

“Imaginative fiction trains people to be aware that there are other ways to do things, other ways to be; that there is not just one civilization, and it is good, and it is the way we have to be.” —Ursula K. Le Guin

---L.

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“It’s something when a unicorn thinks the butterfly names are too poetic.”

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:15:46 GMT

Chinese has a lot of suspiciously specific characters, most of them obscure, though in many cases the suspicion is because they’re the name of an object that’s no longer used, such as 铃, pronounced líng, which is a sort of bell used only for decorating an imperial carriage. And then there’s ones like my favorite: 虯, pronounced qiú, meaning a young dragon old enough to have grown horns.

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