.. with a new haiga (orig.) .. 
..
haunted hayride
the weekend dad
holds on tight
photo: Arthur Giacalone (2000)
poem: David Giacalone
uncle eats all
the trick-or-treat candy
October 18
… dagosan
.. and some new Haibun: To be ghastly frank, the old fuddy-duddies here at f/k/a prefer their haibun — short pieces of narrative prose with a subtly-linked poem — to have customary punctuation and initial caps (and, indeed, actual prose). Nonetheless, substance is more important than style, and editors and authors wiser than we have selected some rather interesting haibun by a pair of our Honored Guest Poets for the latest issue of Frogpond (Volume 31:3, Fall 2008). We’ve typed two of them up for you to enjoy on this mid-October weekend:
Food Fair 
by w.f. owen
scraping something from my shoe this food varied as the people attending attired in creative colors and fabrics every ethnicity smells of concoctions intermingling wafting through the throng booths offering samples delivered with oversized plastic gloves hairnets never quite covering yet from the mimes to free magnets to cartoon characters to that guy on stilts with the constant smile everything fits.
puppet show she guides her husband into his seat
… by w.f. owen – Frogpond (Volume 31:3, Fall 2008)
Security
by Michael Dylan Welch
The line through security moves slowly, but eventually we empty our pockets and doff our light jackets, place our belongings in plastic containers, and step through the metal detectors. The Parliament tour is busy, but now we’re inside, just under the Peace Tower, in a waiting area as the tour guide describes the fire that destroyed the original buildings. Today, we’re among the endless rounds of tourists who will visit the Hall of Honour, the library that survived the fire thanks to two iron doors, and the opulent senate chamber, with carpet and upholstery all in red to symbolize royalty. As we wait, a video screen repeats views of the rooms where we’ll be walking.
last tour of the day —
the guide’s shoelaces, and mine,
untied
….. by Michael Dylan Welch – Frogpond (Volume 31:3, Fall 2008)
.. And, don’t forget the haibun “Ghostly Figures,” by Ron Moss, which you can find in the Frogpond Sampler for Fall 2008.
Finally, what scares you these days (other than the stock market)?
How about a grown man with a law degree (Craig S. MacGlashan) stooping to putting this trash up on the otherwise-contentless Sacramento County Republican Party website (click to enlarge):
The offending images have been taken down from the site, but were captured by Cynthia Foster at The Shark weblog and the Sacramento Bee. (via Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch)
- And, speaking of bottom lines, some pampered barrister bottoms might be in for an unaccustomed rough time: It seems at least one large law firm is tightening its belt by buying economy toilet paper. See Above the Law (via Elefant at Legal Blog Watch). Oh my, sounds like rough justice.