"Mayhew's fallacy" at Unquiet Grave: "simply assuming that the reason someone has fundamentally different tastes than yours is because they are less sophisticated/informed/etc..." Well, yes, I'm guilty of that. I'm flattered to have a fallacy named after me, even if I didn't personally invent snobbism. I could simply point out that my "taste" simply is better informed, more sophisticated, than most people's, but that would beg the question, wouldn't it? I think people enjoy reading my blog because I call 'em as I see 'em and because I know what I'm talking about. When Merwin and Rich can publish poems in the APR that sound just like Rod McKuen, then something is deeply wrong. If Charles Wright is not a dull New Yorker poet, then tell me what I am missing; I really want to know. Don't hide behind "taste."

The late Donald Justice really is a whole lot better than Robert Pinsky or Billy Collins. Collins is not as bad as I think, perhaps, it's just that his appearance in all these BAPS makes it seem as though he were one of our great modern masters, when actually he is just what I said, a mediocrity who's found a clever formula. He's a Kenny G, not a Coltrane.