Thanks to Kelli over at First Draft for this:

I just learned today that Gay and Lesbian books on Amazon lost their sales rank today (happy stinkin' easter, I guess).

Don't believe me?

Go to Amazon and search for Peter Pereira's book. I did. NO sales rank, but then I saw Kathleen Flenniken's book under "Customers who bought this book also bought..." and I clicked on that and there was a sales rank for my heterosexual friend.

Mark Doty's Memoir? NO sales rank.
My book? Sales rank.
Ilya Kaminsky's book? Sales rank.
C. Dale Young's book? NO sales rank.

Are you seeing a pattern? Amazon responded with this lame excuse, that it was a "glitch." Maybe glitch stands for gay/lesbian/interest/the/conservatives/hate.

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In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass", the Red Queen tells Alice, "Speak in French when you can't remember the English for a thing." That's perhaps not bad advice considering that beaucoup words in the English language have arrived via French.

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A fun bowling poem from today's ALP:

Occurrence on Washburn Avenue

Alice's first strike gets a pat on the back,
her second a cheer from Betty Woszinski
who's just back from knee surgery. Her third--
"A turkey!" Molly calls out--raises everyone's eyes.
They clap. Teresa looks up from the bar.
At the fourth the girls stop seeing their own pins wobble.
They watch the little X's fill the row on Alice's screen--
That's five. That's six. There's a holy space
around her like a saint come down to bowl
with the Tuesday Ladies in Thorp, Wisconsin.
Teresa runs to get Al, and Fran calls Billy
at the Exxon. The bar crowds with silent men.
No one's cheering. No one's bowling now
except Alice's team, rolling their balls
to advance the screen around to Alice, who's stopped
even her nervous laugh, her face blank and smooth
with concentration. It can't go on
and then it does go on, the white bar
reading "Silver Dollar Chicken" lowering and clearing
nothing, then lowering and clearing nothing again.

--Regan Huff