We’re in. Look for Wrestling an Alligator, written and directed by Edward Champion, at this year’s San Francisco Fringe Festival, sometime in September 2004. More details later.

This year’s Nebula Award nominees are up, with links to most of the short stories and book excerpts. Among the nominees: Carol Emshwiller, Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Cory Doctorow, and Jeffrey Ford.

Does Matt Drudge seriously believe that an unconfirmed rumor is going to stop Kerry? Because if he does, and groundless character flaws are the best he can muster against Bush’s National Guard AWOL, his failure to offer an Iraq-WMD link, and the skyrocketing deficit (to name just a handful), then his finger ain’t even close to the American pulse.

Let’s say the allegations are true (and, so far, the burden of proof is shaky). Does anyone really want to go back into Monicagate territory? No. Been there, done that. Trivial, really, in a post-9/11 world and a shaky economy. And there’s no simply way that Bush will be able to escape deficit/lack of Iraq-WMD link questions, even if Kerry slept with an intern. The media, even with its shaky ethical plinth, wouldn’t let that double standard happen. Call it the fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me syndrome.

If it turns out to be true, then this may be the piece of news that destroys Drudge’s career, much as Harry Knowles’ credibility was eviscerated when he “predicted” the Oscars. It’s a shame. Because there are Internet columnists and bloggers out there of all stripes who actually bother to fact-check.

Ann Taylor Cook, aka the Gerber Lady, has been using her postpartum postergirling to move copies of her first novel. Cook said that she sold 10 books in an hour when the Gerber drawing was on the table next to her. The 77-year old newcomer plans to start drooling and repeatedly banging her spoon into a bowl for future in-store appearances.

Harlan Ellison’s copyright case against AOL has been revitalized by an appeal. The 69-year old curmudgeon declared that his blood pressure hadn’t dropped and that he would “beat the shit out of those motherfuckers, tearing their obsidian sphincters out with my bare hands.” When asked how he would unleash this violence before a judge and jury, Ellison offered no explanations, but he called the journalist asking this question “a parvenu of the first order.”

A “quirkyalone party” has been planned in New York for Valentine’s Day. Several dateless thirtysomethings plan to attend, crying for hours into a collective cistern, and then spending the afternoon dwelling on their misery rather than ignoring the silly holiday (like most single people). The Quirkyalone label that has now been trademarked. An I Am Quirkyalone! Hear Me Wilt! affirmation video can be found in Wal-Mart in August.

The Guardian reports that, far from being a dour bore and a real pissant, Immanuel Kant was a wild and crazy guy. According to three new biograhies, Kant was actually known as “the Robert Downey, Jr. of his day.” So committed was Kant to debauchery that attentions are now being paid to a recently discovered treatise called “Critique of Crystal Meth.”

New census results reveal that Americans would rather curl up with a good book than surf the Web. It was also reported that book bloggers would prefer this to, but that most of them could not refrain from posting links because “their jobs were unbelievably boring.”

And happy birthday, Sarah!

Pollack vs. Grambo on Lou Dobbs. If anybody Tivoed it, let me know.