Four times a year we publish our on-line literary journal, r.kv.r.y. quarterly.  As the New York Times reminds us today, one of our favorite moods -- optimism "causes a great deal of mischief, leading us to underestimate the time and trouble of the projects we undertake."  On the other hand, as Jim Holt notes in You Are What You Expect, The Futures of Optimists and Pessimists,

the mere fact that [optimism] is so widespread in our species suggests it might have some adaptive value.  Perhaps if we calculated our odds in a more cleareyed way, we wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.

So it is with our decision, nearly three years ago, to publish an on-line literary magazine.  We so underestimate the time and trouble of this purely recreational project that we are unlikely to post anything on this blog in the coming week.

If you're an old Lit major practicing law or conducting business and missing the thrill of a well-turned phrase, check out our archives.

The most noteworthy entries in the Winter 2007 issue (still under construction) are two chapters from local author-attorney Richard Wirick's nearly completed novel, The Devil's Water.  I practiced law with Rick at Buchalter, Nemer in the late '80s and early 90's, at which time he held the sigular distinction of being the only person I knew who'd read both Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.  For Literature majors, this is the equivalent of inventing cold fusion.  

More recently, Rick has been nominated for the prestigious PENN/Faulkner award for his cycle of prose-poems One Hundred Siberian Postcards, which, we must proudly point out, r.kv.r.y. printed first (well, at least three of them, before Telegram Books in London had the wisdom to publish all one hundred).

So that's where we'll be.  Laboring over the Yahoo! SiteBuilder, taking far far far longer than we ever planned to publish the next issue of r.kv.r.y.

Back soon!