I have about three half-written draft posts in the hopper here, including one on what the Celtics’ slide means, another on a new featherproof project, and still another on electronic publishing. How can you bear the anticipation?

You could bear it by coming out to the Innertown Pub tonight, at 7:30pm, for the latest Quickies!, at which I’ll read a new story in less than five minutes. Come on out. It’s barely winter.

The Dollar Store returns tonight! At 7pm! Featuring Lindsay Hunter, Robbie Q. Telfer, Seth Dodson and Zach Dodson. Four of the five Sexiest Chicagoans of 2009. The fifth couldn’t make it!

See you then!

It’s rare that I get a moment to read anything that doesn’t come to me for review, and the week off TOC gives us at the end of the year provides provides one of those rare moments. So I figured I’d share what I’m planning on reading between now and my return to the office in January:

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (finally!)
You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon
Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner
The Slide by Kyle Beachy
The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno

We’ll see if we can get through them all, but I get ambitious this time of year.

Marc Ambinder has some thoughts on who “Senate Candidate 5″ is, as does Capitol Fax. The main link here to Jesse Jackson, Jr. comes from his meeting with Blago, shortly after Blago said he would meet with #5.

Blago on tape: “…but if they feel like they [meaning Obama's people] can do this and not fucking give me anything…then I’ll fucking go [Senate Candidate 5],” which to me implies that this is someone Obama does not want to get the seat. But Jesse was the national co-chair for Barack’s campaign, and was the guy who stomped out the fire his father lit when he declared he wanted to cut Barack’s nuts off. Even if Obama, for whatever reason, felt Junior shouldn’t get the seat, I can’t imagine the sudden animosity toward a member of his campaign staff would be so great that Blago would see Jesse’s appointment as an opportunity to stick it to the pres-elect. It’s more likely, if we’re picking between the two, that Senate Candidate 5 is Emil Jones, who is tight with the guv, and friends with Obama, but is certainly not the kind of old-school politician Barack would want taking up the rest of his term.

Though I guess, in the end, all of this is trying to read Blagojevich’s actions as if he had a normal, healthy, human psychology. And that’s not going to fucking give us anything.

This is the post-election coma I’d been expecting. That, and really trying to hunker down and get some novel-writing done. But my Thanksgiving Day Resolution is to get back on the wagon here. In the meantime, you can again be thankful this year that you’re not Chris Duhon:

• Change.gov, the official site for president-elect Barack Obama. Feels good to see it made official like this, doesn’t it? Under “Upcoming Events”: Inauguration.
• I was sad to see that critic John Leonard died on Wednesday. I never read him during the apparent heyday of the New York Times Book Review, because I wasn’t alive yet. But I enjoyed his “New Books” column in Harper’s. I remember reading a story a while back about which critics publishers enjoyed the most, and a lot of them cited Leonard’s column. He struck me as old-school in a way that not many critics are anymore (like James Woods, for instance). They seem to be part of the old guard, the new guard being novelists reviewing for extra pay, and the even newer guard jokers like me.
• Solid game for Leon last night. I want to launch a Powe for Sixth Man of the Year. Who’s with me? (This guy)
• Stephon Marbury is talking about practicing with his old high-school team. Maybe I’m alone here, but that’s just about the coolest remedy a benched NBA player could propose.
• What else has the election stolen from me? Fantasy basketball. That was remedied yesterday with the drafting of my new team: Fat Leverage. The roster, in order drafted, is below (I know D-Will is hurt. I don’t care.) Fat Leverage is going all the way this year: