“Now half the world hates the other half…”

Here in D.C., soggy July makes gargoyles all fall silent—but let these links from clever humans kindle your conditioned air.

“365 Sonnets” chronicles “a Canadian teenager’s love affair with iambic poetry.” He’s up to #363. (Hat tip: Steven.)

“You’re the top / You’re Michele Obama…” Dylan at The Crystal Tambourine drags Cole Porter into 2011.

Dylan also rewrites pop songs in the voices of famous poets, asking questions dear to my heart, such as: How would Smiths lyrics sound from the pen of Gerard Manley Hopkins?

For years, I’ve read and linked to the blog of writer and historical reenactor Will McLean without knowing he was the fellow whose cartoons added vital levity to the first Dungeons & Dragons books. (“Papers & Paychecks,” anyone?)

At Open Letters Monthly, Steve Donoghue reviews a new book, The Last Vikings.

Also at OLM, Rohan Maitzen finds the voice of I, Claudius “very nearly without anything identifiable as a personal style.”

The Book Haven marks the “Orwell Watch” with several sad cliches.

As a Linguist listens to the Breton language.

Ephemeral New York sees a face over West 15th.

Hats & Rabbits ponders technology and life’s little (and not-so-little) tradeoffs.

Steve Mulhberger posts “tear-gas poems” from the streets of Egypt.

Jake Seliger thinks about Harry Potter and sophistication.

James Gurney asks: Do Parrish paintings boost your melatonin?

Ductor possum ad extremum tolerare! On Facebook, Julius Caesar kicks off his 2012 presidential campaign.