well i finished nina simone's gum:a memoir of things lost and found by warren ellis of the dirty three and the bad seeds. it's ok but i keep thinking of what nina would say about this long-haired white boy holding onto her gum for 22 years, then making a mold of it, casting it in silver and gold for jewelry, and then enlarging it to the size of a human heart, and then putting the original on a pedestal in a museum, and then writing a book about it. i think in a way it's touching and in a way it's crazy. 

this has apparently little to do with uncle wriggly and charlie, but it does remind me of the dear departed family dog, stitches, who would peel gum off the sidewalk and chew it with her eyes glinting like it was her lucky day.