The name of the game is Give All.

Saul Bellow, before yesterday known as our greatest living novelist, is dead. In commemoration, I'd like to quote from an extraordinary letter he wrote to his friend Dave Peltz, who complained when Bellow used one of his anecdotes in Humboldt's Gift.

“It wasn't you who was the subject. People have written about me. Their me is not me. It couldn't matter less. What matters is that good things be writtten. Dear God how we need them! . . . I promised not to write Your Life. But this was all I could promise. We've known each other forty five years and told each other thousands and thousands of anecdotes. And now, on two bars suggested by one of your anecdotes, I blew a riff . . . What harm is there in that? Your facts are unharmed by my version . . . These aren't questions of property, are they?. . .

Now David, the nice old man who wants his collection of memory-toys to play with in old age is not you! You harm yourself with such fantasies. For the name of the game is not Social Security. What an error! Social Security is an entirely different game. The name of the game is Give All. You are welcome to my facts. You know them, I give them to you. If you have the strength to pick them up, take them with my blessing. Touch them with your imagination and I will kiss your hands . . . What you fear as the risk of friendship, namely, that I may take from the wonderful hoard is really the risk of friendship because I have the power to lift a tuft of wool from a bush and make something of it . . . So I know how to transform common matter. And when I give that transformation has that no value for you? . . . As for me I long for others to do it. I thirst for it. So should you”

Brothers apart are still brothers.

Gooblar - Let's Go Away For a While

This is not the type of song I've been trying to write. In fact, I'm not quite sure I'd like to write another song like it. But here it is. I've had this chorus kicking around for literally five years, and one morning last month, came up with the verse melody and most of the words in the shower. Wonderful, these gifts of the brain.

Yes, the Pet Sounds reference is intentional.

Thoughts, etc., as before.

Joker poke.

There's a guy who lives in Indiana. One morning he wakes to hear a voice in his head. The voice says, "Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas."

He ignores this voice and goes to work.

Later in the day, he hears this voice again. "Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas." Again, he ignores the voice. Soon he hears the voice every minute of the day. "Quit your job, sell your house, take all your money, and go to Las Vegas." He can't stand it anymore, so he takes the voice's advice.

He quits his job, sells his house, takes all his money, and flies to Las Vegas.

As soon as he steps off the plane, the voice says, "Go to Binion's Horseshoe." He goes to the Horseshoe. The voice says, "Buy an entry into the World Series of Poker." He puts up his $10,000 and buys a seat in the tournament. He goes to his assigned table.

In his first hand the guy is dealt A♠ A♣. The voice says, "Go all in."

He pushes his entire $10,000 bankroll into the pot. Three players call. The dealer lays down the flop: 9♥ 10♥ J♥.

The voice says, "Fuck."

Slow news day.