This weekend the weather in Madison was so balmy that I dragged a chair out onto the lawn and sat – sans coat, sans hat – in the sun for over an hour, reading. Maybe I even got a little bit of a tan.

But.

One day later (that is, Monday) it snowed. And that snow stuck to the ground, where a tiny bit of it remains to this moment. I can no longer check the mail barefoot, because the pavement’s gone icy. Apparently this “winter” thing is for real, guys.

Several friends and I have been feeling acute loneliness from different parts of the map, and soothing ourselves with whatever pale element of connection we can grasp. Both getting a haircut in the same week? It’s like we went together! Are we all wearing socks at the same time? Who would have guessed!

So to avoid getting all saccharine and mopey, let’s just do some links and call it a day, eh?

– This is a little old, but if you didn’t check out Lisa Brown’s Ten-in-One sideshow comics on The Rumpus already, give them a look!
– My brother’s band is running an ambitious Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording/producing/publicizing of a new EP. Help some independent artists make new work!
– The Paris Review interview with Kurt Vonnegut. Because the world is a hard place babies, but goddamnit you’ve got to be kind.
– Did you see this list of required reading by David Barthelme in The Believer? Now you can. (Also: the current issue includes an interview with Maurice Sendak. WHY AREN’T YOU READING IT NOW?)
– Finally, if you haven’t read “The Egg” by Sherwood Anderson, you haven’t lived. So, um, maybe you want to get on that?