I received one of those standard boilerplate, computer-generated appeals from the Environmental Defense Fund today with a special "communication" from famed actress and famed Paul Newman wife Joanne Woodward. Now I suppose there is nothing unusual in that which would make me laugh out loud, and want to sit right down at my computer and write, but I swear to god that Joanne Woodward was dead.

I had all sorts of things to write about receiving a missive from beyond the grave, or somehow Joanne had been re-animated by greenhouse gases, or better Paul, in his grief, and some how brought her back to life by using his salad dressing like the bride of Frankenstein or Pet Cemetery."Its alive! Its alive!"

Where the hell did I get that she was dead? I swear she died of breast cancer like Linda McCartney some years back (and let me tell you, that makes me want to buy her health food!)

Oh well--so much for jokes about the not-so-dead.

I decided to go ahead with the whacked out idea of WASH. Basically it is a writing group. The first issue ("Hung out to dry") is about loss. Go see. Spread the word. Write. Submit your link. Stay in school. Don't do drugs. You get the idea.