It's called "shrinkflation" in Canada.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwi...

Ah well. The nomination is a garland you can wear with pride and which no one can take away from you. Congratulations on being a finalist.

Fingers crossed for a win for "On Beauty".

Bravo! I am mostly indifferent to team sports (the shame!) but many like me were nevertheless caught up in the excitement of the World Series this year--a time in Canada when the unhinged president of our southern neighbour threatens to annex us and make us the 51st state. Not going to happen.

Canadians learned that lesson recently when the Toronto Blue Jays had the World Series "in the bag" until they didn't--in the second overtime inning of the seventh & final game. But, despite the loss, the upsurge in excitement & enthusiasm for the team's fine effort lives on. So not a loss, really.

Congratulations, Nicholas. This is wonderful news. Please DM me with details, if you can, about how I might be able to purchase an inscribed copy. Tom aka PWB

Bravo! Kevin Barry's celebrated Young Skins was one of my Reads of the Year in 2016. Great to see it receiving this new recognition. I also put Karen Solie's The Road in is Not the Same Road Out on my 2016 RoTY list. This year her Wellwater won the Forward.

glasgowreviewofbooks.com/2016/12/31/r...

Hope you and John had a glorious anniversary celebration!

Thanks, Theresa. Progress in recovery is better and swifter than last year but, even so, getting out to tomorrow's concert is not on the cards, alas. I'm missing the entire Writers' Festival this year too! Timing is everything. Still, I'll be fully mobile and pain-free in a few months.

I think that might be a poem.

And the tragedy echoes down the ages. Basil Fawlty to Sybil: "“Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Hmm?"

x.com/FAWLTYTOWERS...

When AI climbs over the little plastic fence that surrounds the daycare's sandbox, toddles unsteadily indoors (diaper is full so centre of balance is off) and starts mashing the keys on somebody's laptop with its tiny, moist hands.

Tiny moist hands have much to answer for in this world of ours.

Happy 46th to you and John, Theresa! Hoping you have something wildly imaginative in mind for your celebration. Tom

Did you know that Tess Gallagher formed an enduring friendship & poetic axis with Ciaran Carson in the mid-1970s? CC admired her writing & Irish subject matter is plentiful in her poetry. She read at his memorial in 2020. Clip from an interview circa 2007 is attached.

inside.ewu.edu/willowspring...