At 82, children's-book author Maurice Sendak has created a new wild thing—a pig who longs to party. HarperCollins is set to announce that it will publish in the fall "Bumble-Ardy," the story of a pig who has his first-ever birthday party when he turns 9. It will have a print run of 500,000 copies. Mr. Sendak first began to develop the character in 1971 in an animated short produced for "Sesame Street," by Jim Henson. Mr. Sendak has provided the illustration, story or both for more than 100 titles, including "Where the Wild Things Are," in 1963, which has sold more than 10 million copies. "Bumble-Arby" is the first book he has both illustrated and written in nearly 30 years. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704604704576220462290001684.html

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41 In honor of National Poetry Month, I am reading Folding Cliffs, a narrative in verse of 19th-century Hawaii by W.S. Merwin and re-reading A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Review of poetry books by Melissa Cain, professor at the University of Findlay http://www.toledoblade.com/Books/2011/03/27/Celebrate-National-Poetry-Month-with-clever-new-books-2.html

The Devil's Teardrop, a novel of the last night of the century by Jefferey Deaver
It was his favorite gesture. He had a whole vocabulary of shrugs.
Don't you linguists hate it when people verb nouns?
That's a standard rule of grammar--a comma before the nonrestrictive 'which' and not before the restrictive 'that.'
Only a few methods of writing remain, notably the Zaner-Bloser System and the Palmer Method.
Handwriting's a part of a human being ... writing can last for hundreds of years. Thousands. It's about as close to immortality as we can get.

A questioned documents examiner (QDE) is a kind of forensic analyst, like a crime scene investigator or someone who analyzes fingerprints or fibers. A QDE examines documents for signs that they have been forged or altered. They sometimes use handwriting analysis to compare a document with a sample to determine who wrote it. They may also be able to compare a typed document and link it to a specific machine. http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-is-questioned-documents-examiner
The American Society of Questioned Document Examiners http://www.asqde.org/

Handwriting characteristics Form is the pictorial representation of a letter or writing movement. A highly visible dissimilarity in the form of the same letter found in both the questioned and standard material is an inherent difference in handwriting. Form is the first of the individual characteristics that will receive the document examiner's close scrutiny. Movement is the manner in which the pen moves in order to form a letter. Some parts of movement have been historically referred to as "Garland" if the pen moves overhand, or clockwise, producing rounded letter formations, or "Arcade" if the pen moves underhand, or counter-clockwise, producing saw-toothed letter formations. Height ratios are a comparison or correlation of the height of one letter or letter segment to another letter, usually within the same word or signature. One would expect all capital letters in the same writing system to maintain the same height throughout a body of writing. However, the heights of capital letters in an individual's writing may vary from one letter to another. A capital "K" may always maintain a slight height advantage over a capital "L", or "Z" or other letter. The same concept is likewise utilized in a comparison of lower case letters, or in a comparison of lower case letters to upper case letters. Thus, combinations of various height ratios are often uniquely individual and habitual to a specific writer. Of all individual characteristics, height ratios seem to be the most difficult characteristic for a forger to get correct. On occasion, a writer will use an upper case form of a letter in a place usually reserved for the lower case form, or vice versa. These characteristics, if found in both questioned and standard material may be highly significant. http://www.questioneddocuments.com/Individual%20Characteristics/individual_characteristics.htm

London is the largest town in Britain, the capital of England. It covers around 700 square miles. However, when we refer to the “City of London” it refers only to the area occupied by the original old walled city built by the Romans. It was the beginning of this great metropolis we know today simply as London that over the years expanded outwards from it. The old city covered an area of roughly one square mile and was surrounded by an eighteen foot high wall and a ditch (or moat). The walls disappeared many years ago but this area, that has for centuries been one of the major financial centres of the world, now full of international banks and businesses, is still referred to as “The Square Mile” or "The City". http://www.barryoneoff.co.uk/html/city_of_london.html

Originally Washington DC was 10 miles square (or 100 square miles). But some of the land was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Area today City 68.3 sq mi Land 61.4 sq mi Water 6.9 sq mi http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_large_is_Washington_DC_in_square_miles

CANAL TRIOLET by Martha Esbin July 7, 2005 (written after returning from a June cruise on Canal du Midi)
The Midi Canal in the south of France
By tree-studded banks wends its way.
Ducks and dragonflies do a dance.
The Midi Canal in the south of France
Spellbound travelers see a green expanse
As La Tortue glides smoothly each day.
The Midi Canal in the south of France
By tree-studded banks wends its way.
La Tortue is an 1895 coal barge built in Holland that was converted to offer cruises on Canal du Midi.

The triolet (pronounced tree-o-lay) originated in France in the 13th century. The triolet is a verse form of eight lines with this rhyme scheme:
A
B
a Rhymes with 1st line
A Identical to 1st line
a Rhymes with 1st line
b Rhymes with 2nd line
A Identical to 1st line
B Identical to 2nd line