This is a multi-purpose site.

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I am (for instance) a poet, a photographer, a playwright, a performer, and a puzzle master. There are arts I practice seriously, and there are pursuits at which I play. Honestly, though, I see all of what I do in the arts as parts of the same larger avocation, and the parts overlap.

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(1) At tabs such as POETRY, PAPERBACK WRITER, PHOTOGRAPHY, and PLAYHOUSE, I promote the more serious pursuits. Like the rest of the site, they are meant as browsing rooms, but their focus is narrower.

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(2) Every top tab other than those four has a dropdown menu. POTPOURRI breaks into six subcategories, PLAYPEN into four, PAST GLORIES into three. These dropdown subcategories (which aren't closely related) may prove, when you click on them, to branch off still further, into maybe-related subcategories.

 

(3) Even this PORTAL PAGE has dropdown tabs. PAGES is the site contents page. PERSONAL gets personal. PETAL RIDGE explains the origin and the intention of the site name. PING ME is my "contact me" page.

 

(4) Some of the dropdown categories are tightly focused; some aren't. Take PLAYPEN, where "Puzzle Palace" focuses on word puzzles, especially word square puzzles; "Pop Songster" collects song lyrics. "Projects" houses whatever notion I have some building blocks for, until I've worked on them enough to move them elsewhere. The site, let's be honest, is a ramshackle mansion, and permanently under construction even as I live in it.

 

(5) As in any good ramshackle mansion, there are passageways between sections; themes and topics overlap. For instance: "Party Pieces" focuses on my light verse, but other light verse work is at "Pic Lit" or "Performance" or "POETRY." The "China '92" project is mostly under "Peripatetics" (travel writing), but there's also a China gallery in "PHOTOGRAPHY," and there are China poem/photo pairs in "Pic Lit." My classroom song lyrics in French aren't in "Pop Songster" (though some of my non-classroom ones are); drop down from PAST GLORIES to "Parlez-vous."

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(6) The PUBLICATIONS and PNEWS tabs, like this PORTAL, are for more Practical Matters. At the first I list (with publication details) my available books. In PNEWS  I sporadically announce what's going on in my professional world: publications, press, planned appearances, and so on. As the Pnews becomes old news, I delete some items, and archive others: drop down to "pnews crevés." (This is a bilingual pun. I like puns. "Puns" should be a subcategory.)

 

That's it. Now go navigate.