GOOGLING MYSELF IN ILLINOIS

Let's face it: we all Google ourselves (I mean on the internet; get your minds out of the gutter). In the middle of the other night (our youngest had croup), I was up and surfing the 'Net and decided that, just for laughs, I would run my name through the search engine again. Funny thing, after the Bolivian soccer player, chef, Brazilian poet, and Midwestern Middle school teacher--all with the name Daniel Tricarico, how odd is that?--I came up with something very interesting. . .

Recently, I talked about how I had done zero (or nearly zero) marketing on my teaching book and had all but abandoned checking the royalties statements on iUniverse.com. But on the fifth or sixth page of hits for my name a listing came up for something called "The Illinois Education Loop," or something like that. I clicked it and was almost instantly connected (I still have dial-up)to the page where someone in Illinois reviews books of interest to teachers and there was a capsule review of my book!! How they found out about it, I have no idea. I would think it was just the automated system that puts my book on every books-for-sale-website on the 'Net, but someone wrote original stuff for the capsule and quoted from my introduction (implying, be still my heart, that someone half a continent away actually may have even READ a little bit of what I wrote). Amazing. It makes me wonder what would happen if I were actually BEHIND this book.

Consequently, I recommend that we all Google ourselves as much as possible. Usually, it feels pretty damned good.

IS THIS HOW T.S. ELIOT STARTED OUT?

It seems the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.

My seven year-old daughter must have inherited some of my writer gene. She enjoys writing poems and stories and often "publishes" them using folded construction paper as a book cover. I've told her many times what a great writer she is turning out to be, but that she never has to write another word unless she wants to and enjoys it.

The other day she wanted to write a poem to commemorate the Christmas holiday. While I did help her a little, it was less than the final product might suggest. I was so impressed with her effort, that I asked her permission to post it here, and she agreed:


CHRISTMAS
by my 7 year-old daughter

December nights are cool.
Winter Break I have no school.

Christmas lights are shining bright
in the dark December night.

There's a dense fog advisory expected soon.
Tonight you will not see the moon.

It's snowing on the mountains and also other places.
Snuggly fires burn inside so many fireplaces.

Three more days 'til Christmas. Hurry! Hurry!
Buy some presents. Scurry! Scurry!


I wonder if T.S. Eliot started out this way? I'd say Charles Bukowski but there's no mention of booze, vomiting, or cheap whores. I'm sure she'll get around to that in her high school creative writing class. Merry Christmas!