some author activity: Barwin, Tierney, Strang, Mc Donnell, Sparrow, Swensen, Johnson + Earl,

Doreen Nicoll interviews Gary Barwin for the Small Change Podcast; Orchid Tierney has new work in petrichor; Catriona Strang has a poem up at the Chaudiere Books blog as part of National Poetry Month, as does Conor Mc Donnell, Noah Sparrow, Cole Swensen and Chris Johnson; and Amanda Earl is part of an assemblage of translations of John Keats over at Asymptote, as curated by Johanna Drucker.

some author activity: Boyle, Carr, Johnson, Mc Donnell + mclennan,

Frances Boyle has new work up at talking about strawberries all of the time; Julie Carr is interviewed over at Tupelo Quarterly; Chris Johnson has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" series; Conor Mc Donnell has an essay up at The Woodlot, as does rob mclennan, who also offers an essay on his new poetry manuscript-in-progress, a poem from such is now up at minor literature[s].

Jay Miller reviews the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl (2025)

Montreal poet, translator and reviewer Jay Miller was good enough to provide the first review of the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl (2025) over at Bibelotages. Thanks so much! You can read Miller's original post here. As Miller writes:

The Baggage Handlers, The Suitcase Poem

This is something only Canadian small press poetry could produce. The baggage handlers.

The Baggage Handlers is a shorthand for: Marie-Andrée Auclair, Gregory Betts, Jeff Blackman, Ellen Chang-Richardson, AJ Dolman, Amanda Earl, Doris Fiszer, Gwendolyn Guth, Jenna Jarvis, Chris "Stop" Johnson, Tanis MacDonald, Roz Toner, MW (Matthew Walsh).

This is an eight-page poem without a title, published by rob mclennan's above/ground press in 2025 and compiled by Amanda Earl.

What is this document and what is the nature and meaning of it?

George Steiner mentioned something similar Octavio Paz collaborated on 50 years ago with each collaborator producing something in their own language and appending it on to the original before passing it on. Steiner mentioned it in After Babel but I can't be arsed quite frankly. If you've read it, you already know exactly what I mean.

The Suitcase Poem reminds me of that.

There is something to be said about the uptick of writing groups, but a handful of these folks have been at it for quite a while and clearly it works for them so game on. Letter Killers Club.

How does the poem open?

    a suitcase [...]

I'm gonna skip ahead from here, because the poem doesn't pick up until the second page over, whereas the first feels very much like finding footing:

    stellar interstices, everything
    packed in, or un-, elbow of hinge
    distraction

    the cot/caught merger like traffic, the measured incursion

This is where a software development metaphor would come in so handy, because this is the type of verse that is so close to the metal it becomes abstract on a surface level but delightfully functional on a close-to-the-metal level when it comes to analyzing the prosody, meaning, metaphor, scansion and poetics.

What did you expect from a collaborative effort of over a dozen well-versed poets?

This is poetry for the poetry-maker. I don't even know if a hobbyist printer would appreciate this as much as a publisher such as rob mclennan. We may never have another one of him in the future.

This is something only Canadian small press poetry could produce. The baggage handlers.

The collaboration effort becomes apparent in cento-like instances such as:

    earlier today, when dad finally won
    their little game of telephone tag/hide/seek
    he told her that he'd heard it might rain
    maybe early next week
    maybe the one after

Honestly, I'm aware I'm cherry-picking excerpts, but what does this collab poem not say?

The same page ends, after an alternately-aligned bit of text that signals a counter-narrative running throughout the same length of the poem left-aligned:

    dad, a retired travelling salesman
    run as ragged at the edges
    as the empty garment bag
    at the back of the closet
    still yearns for the breeze
    and the emptiness of the road
    and waits for the day he can make off
    with the snugly packed suitcase
    he still keeps tucked under the bed

Obviously, I am glad Canadian poets are working on these collaborative efforts. It speaks to a certain level of cohesiveness, closeness and camaraderie. But doesn't reading this make you want to participate and feel bad for missing out on being invited? Amanda Earl refers to this phenomenon as JOMO: the joy of missing out.

    When we talk about suitcases, we want them tough
    and serenely riding the conveyor belt
    toward us in the airport of our choice

Amanda Earl writes the afterword:

    I invited poets I know, first in Ottawa and then further afield, to take part in a collaborative poem about a suitcase to see what its contents might be and where we might go.

Honestly, this is ephemera worth holding on to. A poem that directly challenges the concept of object, of poiesis, of what it means to be a Canadian poet? Immaculate.

new from above/ground press: the suitcase poem, ed. Amanda Earl

the suitcase poem
Marie-Andrée Auclair * Gregory Betts * Jeff Blackman * Amanda Earl * Ellen Chang-Richardson * AJ Dolman * Doris Fiszer * Gwendolyn Guth * Jenna Jarvis * Chris Johnson * Tanis MacDonald * Roz Toner * MW
$5

Afterword
Since hearing about Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction on David Naimon’s Between the Covers podcast as part of the show’s “Crafting with Ursula” series, I have contemplated its potential for poem-making. The basic idea is that while stories in Western narrative are usually told from the point of view of a hero, centering conflict and violence, a lot goes missing in such a telling. Le Guin images stories as holding living beings, as a way to nurture and gather. I invited poets I know, first in Ottawa and then further afield, to take part in a collaborative poem about a suitcase to see what its contents might be and where we might go. I shared a Google document and invited people to add lines and words to the text. No one individual is the centre of this poem, the author of the story. In fact, there are many suitcases here, many containers. I love being part of this thriving and creative literary community. I thank all the contributors for taking this journey with me. Gratitude, as always, to rob mclennan for agreeing to publish the poem as an above/ground press chapbook.
~ Amanda Earl

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2025
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

In Lieu of Biographies, Suitcases

Before Marie-Andrée Auclair packs their suitcase, they ask: Who will we be there, could we be a better version of us? Are we ready for all kinds of weather? Readiness takes up space.  But there is always room to bring back intangibles. It was years before Gregory Betts owned a suitcase with wheels, great lugs of things heavy with resistance to travel. The sheer weight of them was the inertia against which all destinations, Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Halifax, and all points in between, were measured. Was the sweat worth the burden? With elbows firmly locked against hips, and a damp brow, this was how he once set out into the world. Jeff Blackman's first suitcase had green stripes and two metal latches. He filled it with toys to take to his grandparents' house on the Mountain. Ellen Chang-Richardson found their favourite suitcase buried in a vintage shop in Covent Garden, London, England. They toted it around the world for years until its untimely demise. AJ Dolman's suitcase is currently filling with other people's memories as they move family members into care: a Delft candy dish, red leather pocket book of playing cards, Russian tea box, distinct treasures aching for new meaning, the outsized absence of everything declined. Amanda Earl used her first suitcase to run away from home. She packed dolls & dinky toys & hid w/ tiger lilies on the outside of the wrought iron & stone fence that divided the red brick house from Brock Road in Wilfrid, Ontario.  Doris Fiszer frequently dreams of an oversized suitcase that she is hurriedly packing with lint brushes, flip-flops, cooking utensils and purple hoodies. In these nocturnal adventures, she usually travels to bustling cities with her departed. Gwendolyn Guth's retro suitcase contains grains of sand from a former life. The grains remind her of an unimaginable shade of turquoise. They summon and they abandon. Snow continues to fall in rural Quebec and all is well. Jenna Jarvis has a habit of shoving her worldly possessions into a suitcase or two. Chris Johnson's favourite suitcase was bought at Goodwill, and was irreparably damaged by WestJet in 2012. Chris got $150 to purchase a replacement suitcase. Tanis MacDonald's suitcase is packed full of holes. Every time she travels, she brings back a little more nothing. Roz Toner stores all of their zines in a monogrammed suitcase. To be clear, they haven't a clue who A.E.M. is or was. MW had a blue suitcase that housed a unicorn that loved the dark and loved glow sticks. You could see the shine from the glow sticks even when the suitcase was completely shut like a mouth with nothing to say.

Amanda Earl is the author of ten chapbooks with above/ground press: Eleanor (2007), The Sad Phoenician’s Other Woman (2008), Sex First & Then A Sandwich (2012), A Book of Saints (2015), Lady Lazarus Redux (2017), The Book of Mark (2018), Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019), Sessions from the DreamHouse Aria (2020), a field guide to fanciful bugs (2021) and THE BEFORE, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia (2022). She edited the first issue of G U E S T [a journal of guest editors] (2018), and above/ground press produced Report from the Earl Society, Vol. 1 No. 1 as a festschrift on her ongoing work in 2022.

To order, send cheques (add $2 for postage; in US, add $3; outside North America, add $7) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading!

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan,
The Peter F. Yacht Club annual regatta/christmas party/reading

at Anina’s Café, 280 Joffre-Bélanger Way, Ottawa
Friday, December 27, 2024
doors 7pm; reading 7:30pm

with readings from yacht club regulars and irregulars alike, including Michelle Desbarats, AJ Dolman, nina jane drystek, Laura Farina, Cara Goodwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, IAN MARTIN, rob mclennan, James Moran, Lee Parpart, Wanda Praamsma, Colin Quin, Joan Rivard + Grant Wilkins (and possibly others,

WITH A NEW ISSUE OF THE PETER F YACHT CLUB TO LAUNCH AS WELL

see my report on last year's event here

new from above/ground press: A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth: poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general, ed. Dessa Bayrock

A Crown of Omnivorous Teeth
poems in honour of Chris Johnson and raccoons in general
edied by Dessa Bayrock
$5

with contributions by:

Cameron Anstee
Manahil Bandukwala
Dessa Bayrock
Joshua Chris Bouchard
Liam Burke
Jake Byrne
Conyer Clayton
Ellen Chang-Richardson
AJ Dolman
nina jane drystek
Amanda Earl
Margo LaPierre
rob mclennan
James K. Moran
Emilia Morgan
David O'Meara
Pearl Pirie
and
Monty Reid


There aren’t any proverbs about raccoons that I know of. But there should be. Here’s one, to start: where you see one raccoon, there are five more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are ten more standing behind it.

Where you see one raccoon, there are surely eighteen more standing behind it.

This volume collects eighteen such raccoons — or, at least, impressions of raccoons. The thing these impressions have in common is the raccoon standing in the light, held endearingly by nineteen other beady eyes wedged into faces still firmly in the shadows. The raccoon standing in the light is, of course, Chris Johnson. (Editor’s Foreword, Dessa Bayrock)

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Dessa Bayrock lives in Ottawa with two cats, one of whom is very loud and almost always nearby. She ran post ghost press for two years and has published three chapbooks: IS IT ABOUT RUINS AND GHOSTS?, The Trick to Feeling Safe at Home, and Worry & Fuck. She recently completed a doctorate about Canadian literary awards. You can find her, or at least more about her, at dessaybayrock.com, or at @dessayo on Instagram.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

The Factory Reading Series, January 23: Amanda Earl, Mia Morgan + Chris Johnson,

The Factory Reading Series Presents:

readings by:

Amanda Earl (Ottawa)
Mia Morgan (Ottawa)
+
Chris Johnson (Ottawa)

lovingly hosted by rob mclennan
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Doors 7pm / Reading 730pm
Ten Toes Coffee House and Laundry
837 Somerset Street West (at Rochester Street,

Amanda Earl's latest book is Beast Body Epic. Her chapbook, the Seasons, an excerpt from Welcome to Upper Zygonia comes out this winter from Full House Literary. Earl is now offering an editing service. Ask her for more info.

Emilia Morgan is a Palestinian editor, writer, and small-press publisher. Their work appears in various places, including talking about strawberries all of the time, chaudiere books, and Train: a poetry journal. Emilia is the editorial half of Coven Editions poetry press and holds an MA in Literature and Film.

Chris Johnson [photo credit: Curtis Perry] was born in Scarborough, ON, and currently lives on unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. He is the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, a board member at the Ottawa Arts Council, a member of the selection committee for Bywords.ca, and a member of the creative collective VII. Chris' latest chapbook is 320 lines of poetry (counting blank lines) (Anstruther Press, 2023).

some author activity: Mody, Berlatsky, Johnson, Rogal, Morton, Boyle + Kronovet,

Monica Mody has a substack now, and has work featured at Scroll India; five fleas has published a short poem by Noah Berlatsky; Chris Johnson is interviewed by Andrew French for the Page Fright Podcast; Stan Rogal, Colin Morton and Frances Boyle each have new work in the latest issue of Pinhole Poetry; and Jennifer Kronovet has new work up at Zocalo: Public Square.

some author activity: mclennan, Boyle, Johnson, Houbolt + Armantrout,

rob mclennan, Frances Boyle and Chris Johnson, along with Sadiqa de Meijer and Katia Grubisic, join Susan Johnston on CKCU to discuss Arc Poetry Magazine #100; forthcoming author Kyla Houbolt has a poem in the "Tuesday poem" via the dusie blog; and Rae Armantrout is part of a round-table conversation, "On Poetry and Complexity: A Conversation at the Interface of Art and Science" at Rungh, alongside Madhur Anand, Roald Hoffman, Sarah Tolmie and Osheen Harruthoonyan.

some author activity: fitzpatrick, Johnson, Pirie, Boyle, Turnbull + Hogg,

TIA House presents a podcast conversation between ryan fitzpatrick and Nikki Reimer; Chris Johnson has a new piece up at Shrapnel magazine; Pearl Pirie conducts a mini-interview with Frances Boyle; Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Chris Turnbull are collaboratively interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; and Matthew Friedman writes a small piece remembering Robert Hogg.

new from above/ground press: some of the raccoon poems, by Chris Johnson

some of the raccoon poems
Chris Johnson
$5

well intentioned


if we had been willing to put a mixture of eggs
and cracked pepper into the car’s broken radiator
we probably could have made the drive back
to Ottawa, according to the gentleman at the
Head Lake Trailer Park on the side of Monck Road.
we responded with pleasantries to the suggestion, then
my uncle turned to me and said “no fucking way.”
his Beemer sat there, grille and rad cracked by the
raccoon racing too slowly across the county road,
whose eyes glared in our headlights for a few seconds
before it was curtains, lights out. it was no competition.
it was no fair, but there is a lesson to be learned for
when you try to do something halfway
then try to turn back: it ends badly.
halfway to the other side, and in a moment
the raccoon went from being in the clear to another
“common causes of death” statistic. I only accept
some fault as passenger. as it always does, it all happened
so fast. behind the wheel, my uncle wished he had
braked or swerved instead of barrelling ahead.
between the raccoon, my uncle, and me,
all three of us will look back at that night with regrets.
if we could do it again, we wouldn’t.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2022
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Chris Johnson (he/they) is a settler poet from Scarborough currently living on unceded Algonquin Anishinabe territory. He is the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, a board member at the Ottawa Arts Council, and a member of the creative collective VII.

This is Johnson's second above/ground press title, after Gravenhurst, a failed record of a roadtrip in haibun (2019).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

some author activity: parizeau, mclennan, Kaminski, Johnson + Graham,

df parizeau is interviewed via the Chaudiere Books blog; rob mclennan has some new work up at Court Green, as well as an interview, conducted by Lisa Fishman; and Megan Kaminski also has some poems at Court Green; Chris Johnson has a poem up at Olney; and Lea Graham won the 2021 Michelle Boisseau Poetry Prize over at the Bear Review, where she was also interviewed.

some author activity: Naughton, Tierney, Brockwell, Johnson + Flowers,

Katie Naughton has some new work up at Tagvverk, as does Orchid Tierney; Stephen Brockwell has a new poem up at The Typescript; Chris Johnson has four new poems in the October issue of deathcap; and Neil Flowers is being interviewed over at poetry mini interviews.

some author activity: Boyle, Kratz, Joseph, Johnson, Eleftherion, Koss, Cortese, Kaplan + Betts,

Frances Boyle has a new poem up at Literary Mama, three at Anti-Heroin Chic, and further in issue #11 of CP Quarterly; Al Kratz has a new essay over at my (small press) writing day; Alexander Joseph's above/ground press debut is written up in an article for The Mountain Ear, and he was interviewed as part of The Mountain Ear Podcast; Chris Johnson has a new poem posted as part of National Poetry Month at the Chaudiere Books blog, as do Melissa Eleftherion and Frances Boyle and Zane Koss and Franco Cortese and Genevieve Kaplan; and Gregory Betts has a new poem posted as part of the "Tuesday poem" series.

some author activity: O'Reilly, fitzpatrick, eckhoff, Johnson + Novak,

Nathanael O'Reilly has some new work posted up at Literati, Melbourne Culture Corner #6 and The Elevation Review; ryan fitzpatrick has some new work plus statement posted as part of the Spotlight series; kevin mcpherson eckhoff has a new poem posted in the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; Chris Johnson is interviewed over at Train : a poetry journal; and forthcoming author JoAnna Novak is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey.

some author activity: Johnson, Paty, Radmore, O'Reilly, Norris + Gold,

Chris Johnson has a new poem up at Train : a poetry journal; Allyson Paty is interviewed over at Touch the Donkey; Claudia Coutu Radmore has a new essay in the "Talking Poetics" series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter, as well as an obituary for Ottawa poet Lesley Strutt; Nathanael O'Reilly is interviewed over at poetry mini interviews; and Ken Norris and the late Artie Gold etcetera have work in the newly-revamped mouse eggs.

some author activity: Johnson, Earl, Drescher, Kaplan + Novak,

Chris Johnson has a new poem up at The Pi Review; Amanda Earl has a visual poem in the "poetry pause" series via The League of Canadian Poets; Julia Drescher has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem" series over at the dusie blog; and both Genevieve Kaplan and forthcoming author JoAnna Novak have work in the latest issue of Posit.

some author acitivity: Olsen, Johnson, mclennan, Hall + Mohammadi,

Geoffrey Olsen has some new work up at The Pi Review; Chris Johnson has a new poem up at The Quarantine Review; rob mclennan has a 'poem of the week' (text and video/audio) over at Vallum magazine; Phil Hall reads some poems via the Pedlar Press YouTube channel; Khashayar Mohammadi has a new poem in the "Tuesday poem" series up at dusie.

some author activity: Clayton, hanna, Unsworth, Claxton + Johnson,

Conyer Clayton recommends five books (including natalie hanna's above/ground press debut) as part of the TPQ5 over at The Poetry Question; Lydia Unsworth has a new essay in the Talking Poetics series over at the ottawa poetry newsletter; a portrait of 2020 Governor General's Arts Award-winner Dana Claxton is now online; and Chris Johnson is interviewed in the Six Questions series at the Chaudiere Books blog.

The Peter F. Yacht Club Christmas party/reading/regatta: a report,

How many years have we been doing this now? The first holiday season event we did was most likely back in 2005, so we’ve been doing this for some time, and this past Saturday night was brilliantly fun, with a more lively crowd than usual, and readings by Yacht Club regulars and irregulars Stephen Brockwell, D.S. Stymeist, Frances Boyle, Conyer Clayton, Michelle Desbarats, Robert Hogg, Marilyn Irwin, Chris Johnson, Margo LaPierre, myself, Lee Parpart, David A. Epstein, Monty Reid and Chris Turnbull, who was accompanied by the pre-recorded voice of collaborator Bruno Neiva.  

Stephen Brockwell

As part of my introductions, I spoke of how The Peter F. Yacht Club originally began as an informal group that met to discuss writing back in 1999, morphing into a journal back in 2003 (which still produces an issue for each edition of VERSeFest). One could describe the entire history of The Peter F. Yacht Club as a way for a small group of us to engage with each other’s work, and get a sense of what each other’s current projects might be. So, what are you working on?

The room was packed! It was good to see so many people I feel I haven’t seen in some time, including Pearl Pirie, Jennifer Pederson, David O’Meara, Rachel Zavitz, Jean Van Loon, Grant Wilkins, Laurie Koensgen, Cathy McDonald-Zytveld and Mia Morgan. Unfortunately, Christine McNair and natalie hanna had to send their last-minute regrets (and were missed, obviously).

Robert Hogg (seated) speaking to Craig Carpenter

What was interesting, also, was that Craig Carpenter, a poet I haven’t seen or heard much from in some twenty years (since he left Ottawa for parts unknown) appeared out of the ether to record the audio of the event. The final editor of the late, lamented Carleton Arts Review back in the late 1990s (not long after my own tenure as same), he was in Ottawa throughout the 1990s in part as a student at Carleton University, writing poems as a member of Jim Larwill’s informal writing group, the OmniGothic NeoFuturists (you’ll have to find Jim to find out what he thought that all meant). Apparently Carpenter is currently in Kelowna, British Columbia at UBC, working with Karis Shearer, and assisting in digital transfer of literary readings from dozens of archived cassette tapes (etcetera).

D.S. Stymeist

Stephen Brockwell opened the event with three really sharp poems produced in homage, including one for Stuart Ross [one of the readers at last year’s event] and another for his mentor, Peter Van Toorn, all of which I hope to see in print soon. How does his work manage to remain so sharp? D.S. Stymeist, author of a debut collection from Frontenac House, read a couple of poems from his current work-in-progress, resting behind the bar for both support and added effect. Frances Boyle included a couple of poems from her new poetry title, This White Nest, recently out with Quattro Books (and she has a collection of short stories out this spring with The Porcupine’s Quill, Inc., also). And Conyer Clayton read from a selection of prose poems, including from her most recent above/ground press title (and did you know she has a full-length debut out this spring?).

Michelle Desbarats

Michelle Desbarats is utterly delightful, and it was grand to hear her read from new poems, especially with the admission that she is working on a new manuscript. Can it already have been more than twenty years since the appearance of her debut? I would love to be able to produce another chapbook as well (to follow this one I produced around the same time as her debut). I’ve also been very pleased to see the re-emergence of Robert Hogg over the past couple of years [see my review of his two latest chapbooks here], and his poem playing with the Robert Creeley phrase, “Dig-it,” was amazing.

Margo LaPierre

Chris Johnson read two poems that included raccoons. Is this a new theme, a new thread, emerging in his work? And Margo LaPierre read some new poems that sparkled. I’ve only heard her read a couple of times now, so clearly need to hear further, to get a better sense of what it is she’s working on. I also read a couple of poems, from my work-in-progress “Book of Magazine Verse” [some poems from the same manuscript live here], including one for Frank O’Hara’s birthday (which I have already scheduled to post on my own blog in March, for O’Hara’s actual birthday; watch for it).

Lee Parpart

Lee Parpart was in town from Toronto, and read a couple of poems, which was fun, as did her American pal, poet David A. Epstein, who not only read a couple of curious poems, but offered an invitation to us Ottawa “Peter F. Yacht Clubbers” to their Connecticut Yacht Club. Oh, the boating we could do. And Monty Reid regaled us with a sequence around sex, constructed from stories heard and collected.

a very attentive audience

The collaboration between Chris Turnbull and Portugese poet Bruno Neiva sound fascinating (apparently there’s already a chapbook produced of such I have yet to get my hands on); Chris was able to provide some audio of Neiva reading some selections from their work-in-progress, and then Chris read a couple.

Monty Reid

listening to Bruno Neiva's audio

It was a grand event! I am very pleased, and also, very exhausted. And then a group of us landed downstairs, for lengthy conversation and hijinks. How did I only manage to get home at 1:30am?