A number of readers from the UK (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) have accessed the post entitled “Emasculation.” It has more hits than any other. Does anyone know why? I could hazard a few guesses, but, of course, it would be suicidal to do so.

By the way, there is a particularly gruesome example of a ritualized version of this (emasculation) in Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 in “The Part about the Crimes.” It happens in a Mexican prison to a new inmate who raped and killed a wealthy man’s daughter. The guards and prison population watch. Of course, the prisoners who commit the act and the guards have been paid off. Money, Bolaño states, is the only reason anything happens in Santa Teresa.

Know of any really good coffee places that open early in San Francisco?

Yesterday I picked up a copy of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and have gone from being initially impressed to mostly indifferent. I’ve relegated it to a spot near the toilet to occupy myself while waiting for inspiration to come. I know I’m supposed to stay positive, but I ask myself, is this really worthy of a Pulitzer? Is it all about money and nothing else? Would Faulkner be published today? Would Robert Penn Warren?

Ever wondered why the male sperm count is so low in Missouri?

Atrazine, which has been banned in the EU because it contaminates the water supply, is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States. Tyrone Hayes, a scientist at UC Berkeley, found evidence that it causes demasculinization of male frogs and is an estrogen disruptor. It turns male frogs into females. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) examined all available studies on this topic—including Hayes’ work— and concluded that there is “currently insufficient data” to determine that atrazine affects amphibian development, much less humans.

Holy shit. Maybe it IS the water after all.