No olive branch in sight

This is just too much.

Dizzyheads. I realize I've been endangering your health with these "title bouts," but what can I do? I'm just a conduit. You are the ones doing this to yourselves.

Check it out: The level of play has reached dizzying heights. Here comes Dizzyhead Jessica, back for a second round, with a spinal cracker (cf. "Come Together"?) entitled "The Young and the Restless."



But wait! Idalia sends in her second-round entry—let's call it "Fight Back and Win"!

* * *

New New-York Ghost is out...

The recognitions

Today's entries have a title in common. The first, "American Purgatorio," comes to us from Dizzyhead Laird...



...and the second, "Brief Encounter," is the handiwork of Dizzyhead Jessica:


More in a bit...stay tuned!

"Beach" read

My first Salon piece ever is up—a review of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach.

Doesn't "Chesil" sound Korean?

Another thought (I couldn't figure out how to work this in): It's like the anti–Love in the Time of Cholera.