Closing tabs

The new semester has hit me on the head like a gigantic hammer! It's all good, I am thoroughly enjoying it (and particularly excited about teaching Clarissa again), but three of the last four days have featured me collapsing into bed mid-afternoon for a three-hour nap as I try and make the transition back from independently and naturally nocturnal to sociably diurnal - let us hope I can soon compound the transition....

Too lazy to log the light reading and associated links, but here are some tabs to close:

Owl cafes.

Viktor Shklovsky, hilo hero.

Debbie Chachra on why she is not a "maker."

Charles Simic remembers Mark Strand. I didn't know Mark well at all, though we taught in the same department and I used to see him regularly midmorning at Bodystrength Fitness on 106th St., where we both worked out for a stretch of several years. I did have one memorable night out with Mark and his then partner (my colleague and friend) Tricia Dailey: they had an extra ticket to what this (Mary Louise Parker, a great fan of Mark's poetry, was starring in the revival of Craig Lucas's play and had comped him tickets). We said hello to her afterwards and then transferred ourselves for a glorious meal and copious alcohol at the Russian Samovar, also mostly on the house due to Mark's longstanding close friendship with the late lamented Joseph Brodsky. A glimpse into another world!

Finally, the best clip I have seen this week on the internet: how hamsters fit so much in their cheeks.