bushmaster meets bassmaster
"I'm a good fisherman; sometimes I'm a good catcher-man." George W. Bush Not making this up. Bush and the fisherfolk at the White House. (Thanks to Joe in Cheese.)
hillary's james frey moment
“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” Or not.
"until today"
A new story by Merle Drown in Night Train.
in the news
I get mentioned in a couple of articles here. In The Writer, Diana Raab writes about journaling, and in Planet Weekly, C. D. Mitchell writes about teachers.
writers on writers
Paul Theroux on Georges Simenon. Margaret Drabble on Sylvia Plath.
das booty
German woman wants foot operaton. Doctors miss by a yard. (thanks to Matt in Columbia)
mitt romney, take note
(via Neatorama)
new hooverville
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwRIzNyArRY&NR=1]Are you better off now than you were eight years ago? Bear Stearns bailed out, but not homeowners screwed by bankers. If there's a depression coming, you'll have to read about it in the European press. US media doesn't cover shanty towns. Socialism for the rich; capitalism for the poor. Same as it's ever been.
requiem, mass.
Pre-order your copy now!
larkin
Andrew Motion on Philip Larkin.
the death of the critic
"Yet it is not the heady obscurity of literary theory that he blames for “killing off” the critic. The culprit, as he sees it, is Cultural Studies, which requires that any cultural artefact be evaluated politically rather than aesthetically (aesthetics being revealed to be covert politics). Cultural studies may have been anti-elitist, refusing distinctions between high and low, proper and popular, but it doomed the academic to irrelevance outside the academy." John Mullan reviews Ronan McDonald's new book on lit crit or the lack of it.
on ice, chapter 2
Maybe it's a novel waiting to be written. "The Orange County coroner believes Trepp, who was discovered last week in a Rubbermaid container in a room at the Fairmont hotel, died of a drug overdose. Stephen David Royds, who had been living in the hotel for years, is being held on drug charges but isn't a suspect in Trepp's death." (thanks to Leslie in Irvine)
from ness city, kansas
Today's short story waiting to be written. "Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who stayed in her boyfriend's bathroom for two years, spending most of her time on the toilet — so that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police." (thanks to Cyndi in Paxton)
literary frauds
Some recent liars.
up in smoke
Adam Kirsch really doesn't like the new Nicholson Baker book. Neither does William Grimes. Mark Kurlansky begs to differ. Glenn C. Altschuler weighs in.
ahab in polk county
Today's short story waiting to be written. Man who lost an arm to a 'gator, goes after him.
scents of smell
Terrific review/essay by John Lanchester in the New Yorker. "A taste or a smell can pass you by, unremarked or nearly so, in large part because you don’t have a word for it; then you see the thing and grasp the meaning of a word at the same time, and both your palate and your vocabulary have expanded."
on ice
Today's short story waiting to be written: "When they searched Stephen David Royds' room, they found the body inside a Rubbermaid container filled with dry ice, he said." (Thanks to Richard in the Keys)
memoir fabulists
Ben Yagoda on why they get caught. How to fake your memoir. Be a victim, of course.
how to write a misery memoir
"Imagine that your parents didn't beat you up, that you were only slightly bullied at school, that you only get pissed from time to time and that you haven't got a fatal illness. How does that make you feel? Inadequate, I should think. Who is going to want to read your life story? Even the market for misery memoirs has its limits and no one is going to be interested in the heartfelt pain of being rather ordinary. But don't let that hold you back. Because if you are really determined to spill your guts, you can. Here's how."