Some oddments:

– The thylacine is, or was, a carnivorous marsupial in Tasmania, and isn’t it just the most devil-dog looking little guy? I say “is, or was” because the species is officially extinct, though unconfirmed sightings persist. Which means: thylacines went from being a known animal to being a cryptid (thereby adopting an aura of the mysterious, the contested, the unseen, the mythic). Can anyone in this world really hope for better?

– Are you interested in being devastated by the possibilities of the human body, mind, and condition? Then perhaps you’ll take a look at Esmé Weijun Wang‘s essay “Perdition Days: On Experiencing Psychosis” up at The Toast.

– After my riding lesson on Monday, I sat on a bale of hay and was nuzzled by a baby horse. She was soft, she kept bonking her all-out-of-proportion head, her eyes were purple and blue like sea marbles.

– Have I mentioned those disturbing parts of Lewis & Clark’s journals, which I saw printed in concrete as part of a permanent Maya Lin installation on the Long Beach Peninsula? Can anyone explain this to me? “Do Do Do ate a horse. Do Do Do killed a coult.”

(I understand that adventuring types like L & C might have killed and eaten a pack animal. What I’m unclear on is the “Do Do Dos” and the spelling of colt.)