Sad: a little piece in the paper about a man who’s hitchhiking across the U.S. for a memoir entitled “The Kindness of America.” He was sitting on a highway in Montana waiting for a ride “when a man drove up, rolled down his window, shot him in the arm and drove off.”

Sadder: to be a Canadian right now, as this loathsome government forces through their omnibus bill, containing some of the most retrograde, repressive, repulsive legislation this country has ever seen. Shame shame shame!

Glad: okay, calm down, let’s focus on the good news. Heard a great new word today: banksters. How apt. And – featured in my supper salad tonight – my own fresh-picked lettuce, and better lettuce I’ve never had. For dessert, stewed rhubarb from the same patch. Some of the other veggies are struggling; the swiss chard is wilted and black. But the lettuce – all good.

Thunderstorms predicted; the roofer had to cover everything with a tarp again. But so far, nothing but sweet, fresh breezes.

My bank manager is on “Canada Sings” tonight at 10, with his group “The Bank Notes.” Don’t miss it.

And, for you writers …

We accept submissions in all forms, all genres, all pitches, all ideas, all year long: essays, stories, poems, audio, video, basket-weaving, reportage, philosophication, etc. So send us some work! Half the magazines in the country might be on hiatus for the summer, but we aren’t, and if you submit by July 15 we promise you’ll hear back from us before the new semester starts and/or the threat of winter fills you with an insurmountable melancholy sometime in mid-August. Better‘s length guidelines are loose—see the categories for a ballpark on how much to send—but in general, please be kind to your editors and we will be kind to you: if you send us your suite of four novels or your shot-by-shot claymation interpretation of Ingmar Bergman’s whole filmography, we might not be enthusiastic in our response. Our first issue is due out in September. In the meantime, click the images at left to read more about what we want from the world, view slides of the magazine’s grotesque birth, laugh at your pretentious self until you cry, submit to us, or follow us on Facebook. Your editors at large, Sean Bishop, Laura Eve Engel, Rachael Morrison, & Sophie Rosenblum better.culture.lit@gmail.com / bettermagazine.org