Stationary pedestrians will tend to cluster on a public sidewalk at its narrowest point.

So plans for the chapbook from Spilt Milk Press are proceeding. John Klima and I are hashing out the table of contents, but the tentative plan is that the little book will collect six of my near-future SF stories—four previously published, two new.

Publication date: May 2007? Stay tuned!

From the ever irrepressible Walter Becker:

http://walterbecker.com/escape.html

So, we came back late Sunday night from a weekend away to find another mouse snared by one of our traps.

This one was in the pantry, and it had been sitting there untouched for a couple of months. I came in from bringing the last of the luggage from the rental car and Laura pushed plastic bags, paper towels, and industrial cleaners into my arms. "There's something to clean up in the pantry," she said.

She had found it when putting Ella's food supplies away. The trap had caught the mouse right across the top of the head, nearly bisecting the poor thing's skull fore and aft. There was blood pooled a few inches away, as if the trap had jumped upon snapping, the mouse had thrashed hard while dying, or the blood had just flown through the air in a massive gout. Maybe it was all three.

I was half afraid the mouse's head would fall apart when I picked up the trap—the front of its head tumbling free, the back of the head following the limp body to the floor—but miraculously it held together long enough to get it in the plastic bag without having to pick up the body directly. Scrubbing the floor was as pleasant as you can imagine.

Surely there can't have been more than five mice in the house. Right?

Epidode #26 of "ShunnCast" is now available, live from the Delaware shore, in which Bill makes good stage one of his escape, whilst plagued by memories of blood oaths in a granite temple. Plus, special guest commentary by Paul Fischer.

http://www.shunn.net/podcast?id=26

See also shunncast.

I'm just sayin'.

My review of the new French animated film Renaissance (opening today in selected U.S. cities) is available now at Sci Fi Weekly.

(Also, you should check out the English and original French versions of the movie web site. I like the French version of the trailer better, even though I don't understand most of it.)

I joked in my tribute to the class of '84 at my 20-year high school reunion that my friend Darin was the only one in the school who had heard of R.E.M. That might not strictly have been true (which I alluded to in the version of my speech I actually submitted to the reunion committee beforehand), but here, for you young kids, courtesy of Amazon, is some video of what Darin was all excited about back then:

"Radio Free Europe/Wolves, Lower" by R.E.M. (1983)

Okay, for everyone who thought they did indeed want to see the flattened mouse, here you go. I guess it really isn't as flat as all that, but it's certainly flatter than a mouse should be.

(There's a little blood in the picture, just so you know.)

I really don't want that much of the sidewalk. I'm only asking for the width of my shoulders. So why is it, when there's more than enough room for three big guys to walk abreast, and there are only two of you coming my way, and I'm already as far to the right as I can get without stepping into the street, that I have to turn sideways to avoid a collision? I guess I left my sense of entitlement home today.