can't do any work today because the lab has been turned into a haunted publisher's conference. what to do but fake bleed from the neck and await the chili cook-off? picasso femme getup will have to be for tomorrow, today i'm going for more of a stinky, disheveled beatnik look. didn't make it smartbar last night because j got an early call for a live show today. but we did pop into our new favorite tap, the phyllis, an old polka joint where my accent comes out and where, under highly apt pumpkin artistic direction, a team of regulars worked on carving studs terkel, frank llyod wright, shoeless joe jackson, bob newhart, coco taylor, mike ditka, harold washington, ernest hemingway, saul bellow, harry carey, hugh hefner, jane burne, muddy waters and american gothic.