• In his July 22 column, Mr. Frizzelle called the second issue of the local literary journal Cranky "less awful and more varied than the first issue," which was sort of an awful thing to say, although frankly less awful than some of the poetry Cranky publishes.
• Mr. Frizzelle regrets comparing readings to "the atomized, unintelligent allure of rock shows" in his July 29 column. It has since come to his attention that some rock shows are indeed intelligent and that calling something's allure "atomized" (Webster's: "to reduce to minute particles or to a fine spray") is retarded.
• On July 8, Mr. Frizzelle tactfully refrained from naming the obnoxious "hellcat employed as a photographer by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer" who spent Bill Clinton's book signing at Costco this summer bitching and braying and begging store employees for food. Mr. Frizzelle still regrets not having the nerve to publish her name.
• In a December 9 review of Charles D'Ambrosio's essay collection Orphans, recently published by Clear Cut Press, Mr. Frizzelle regrets the extra space that appeared in the headline after the apostrophe in D'Ambrosio's last name. He also regrets that more people haven't signed up for Clear Cut Press book subscriptions, because subscribing is easy (www.clearcutpress.com) and the books Clear Cut Press is publishing are rare, terrific things.
• Mr. Frizzelle, who also writes The Stranger's readings calendar, regrets all the dismissive, unhelpful readings calendar listings he wrote this year, including, "True North is a novel," "The Forest Lover is a novel," "Good Grief is a novel," "Have You Heard? is a novel," "Can You Keep a Secret? is a novel," "The Queen of Everything is a novel," "Broken for You is a novel," "The Last Best League is about baseball," "Waiting for Teddy Williams is a novel involving baseball," "The Twentieth Wife is a novel," "The Food of Love is not a cookbook," "The Floodmakers is a novel," and "Having Faith is about, basically, breastfeeding."
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Speaking of calendars: The only authors giving readings this week are cartoonist Stephen Notley and zine person Christa Donner reading with musician More Or Les on Monday, January 3, at Confounded Books (315 E Pine St, 382-3376, 7 pm, free); Meredith Fort, Mary Ann Mercer, Steve Gloyd, and Stephanie Bezruchka discussing Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health on Tuesday, January 4, at Elliott Bay Book Company (101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free); and novelist David Matlin and editor Lou Rowan on Wednesday January 5, at Richard Hugo House (1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7:30 pm, free).
