The cover of our celebratory second anniversary issue is the belated Clam debut of Sagging Meniscus's first art director, the late, great Royce M. Becker, who whipped up this bespectacled Aphrodite E. Tilley character for us in May 2020 with characteristic panâche. Beneath it is our most clampacked issue yet, beginning, rousingly, with a sermon from Executive Editor Guillermo Stitch on unauthorized personnel, and ending, touchingly, with House Metaclamician Christopher Boucher on what’s missing. In between are Melissa McCarthy on wobbly pictures, more unsavory thoughts from Thomas Walton, Kat Meads on Ross McDonald, Kurt Luchs on vaudeville and Gabriela Mistral, Tomoé Hill on emotional translation, Jake Goldsmith on forgetting the unforgettable, Alina Stefanescu arguing with Ibsen, Julian Stannard on buttocks, Marvin Cohen on bowels, Ed Hamilton on playing chicken, Greg Williard’s picture box, Andrew Farkas on Babak Lakghomi, Jesi Bender on Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, Cate Farr on Magda Szabó, Charles Holdefer on Jesse Lee Kercheval, and assorted Quintagrams by Richard Kostelanetz—not to mention contributions by: Paul Bisagni, Bradley David, Brutus Iscarious, Stephen Kampa, James Reidel, James Sallis, Mike Silverton, and Connie Woodring (poetry); Marc Estrin, Colin Gee, Devin Jacobsen, Andrew McKeown, Palazzo Rodriguez, Shya Scanlon, and Nick Sweeney (fiction); Greg Bem and Sarah Manvel (reviews).