Poetry

Frankenstein Friday! The last Friday of October celebrates the birth of Frankenstein in 1818 when Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley wrote the story Frankenstein. To this day, Shelley's creation is still one of the most famous horror characters of all time.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, you can probably catch a few Frankenstein movies on TV. Or if you prefer to read, here are some books that we have checked in: 

Granted, casting James Franco as the poet Allen Ginsberg in the new film Howl is not as bizarre as trying to shoehorn John Wayne into the role of Genghis Khan, nor as venal as tapping Brad Pitt to play Achilles. Still, my initial reaction was, "What? Matthew McConaughey wasn't available?"

After I managed to talk myself off the ledge with the promise of cookies and the reassuring notion that at most three or four people would pay to see a movie about an Eisenhower-era obscenity trial surrounding a poem that today could be used to sell artfully distressed lofts to red state fauxhemians, I had to concede that of today's young actors Franco is the only one with the perverse, what-the-[heck] sensibility to pull it off.

I hate Billy Collins.

I imagine he would say with a six-figure smile that I'm way at the back of a long line of people who hate him.

Billy can take heart in the fact that because so many people hate him, it is becoming fashionable in some circles to claim to like him, but this is a transparent contrarianism born of cocktail party boredom and too much boxed wine on an empty stomach.