And now we pause for a brief Michael Tanzer interlude.

It is June 3rd. And today is the birthday of TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's father Michael Tanzer, artist, advocate, raconteur, tough guy and pool player. He has been dead eleven years this coming fall and at the risk of being morbid, nothing about that seems sadder than the idea that he will slowly fade from our collective memory, something we know he would have hated. So, in an effort to avoid, or at least prolong said fade, please do take a moment to revisit our 2008 storySouth award nominated creative nonfiction joint and Michael Tanzer homage "PaintWriteDeathLifeArt (Sketches from a Life in Art)," and please do note, and yes this seems coarse as hell, that his last work of art graces the cover of our soon to be released novella My Father's House, something we couldn't be more excited about.

File this under terribly crushed, yet terribly overjoyed. Or, our reaction to the storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 list.

Would we be telling you the truth if we said we weren't terribly crushed not to have TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's story PaintLifeDeathArt (Sketches from a life in art) not make the storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 list because we truly believe its just nice to be nominated? We would not. Are we also terribly overjoyed however to see so many friends of TBWCYL, Inc. make this list? We most definitely are. And so, many congratulations to Amy Guth, Spencer Dew, Nick Ostdick, Corey Mesler and This Blog Will Change Your Life muse Elizabeth Crane. We are big fans of yours here at headquarters and quite frankly think that today you may just rock a little more than usual.