monty python
The Pythons have launched a youtube channel. Here's one of my favorite skits that you'll have to listen to rather than watch. Thomas Hardy sets out to write a novel.
sad news
I just learned that long-time Norton editor, literary icon, and friend Carol Houck Smith has passed away in New York. I'll post an obit as soon as I see one online. Cindy and I lookd forward to our week in Taos every summer and our chance to dine and talk with Carol about books and writers. What a brilliant mind, what a generous person, what a great conversationalist. And she loved buyng turquoise and silver jewelry! Here's an interview with Carol and joan Silber in the Washigton Post. (thanks to Beth in Roanoke)
bad sex
The 2008 Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award. And the winner is . . .
nabokov
Nabokov reads from Lolita, diparages Faulkner, and tells us what he considers the four great novels of the twentieth century.
grand theft auto, twitter, and beowulf
Stories will never die. (What's a Twitter?)
one great city
Let's start the day with a song! The Weakerthans:
10 worst corporations in the world
And the competition was stiff. From Roche Pharmaceuticals: "We are not in business to save lives, but to make money. Saving lives is not our business." That's just one example. How about Chevron: "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this - companies that have made big investments around the world." Read more.
the al franken decade?
Nate Silver was right about the election results; let's hope he's right again: Franken wins by twenty-seven votes!
i'm changing my name to fannie mae
Tom Paxton composition, but I like Arlo's version better. (thanks to Pam in St. Louis)
lynda barry 2
Another interview with Barry on art, books, and alternative energy sources.
gladwyn and taffy
Today's short story waiting to be written. (thanks to Joe in Cheese)
obama's verbal tic
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she [S. Palin]said. (thanks to Tom in Fort Myers)
lynda barry
Great little interview here in Vice Magazine with Lynda Barry, one of my heroes, and the author of one of my favorite books of the year, What It Is.
convicted felon loses election
Ted Stevens now driving on the bridge to nowhere.
anguished english
Sarah Palin: "My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars." Dick Cavett has more. (thanks to Mollie in Austin)
the dawn of a new era in race relations?
Not so much. "At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: 'Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.' Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. 'Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,' the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written 'Let's hope someone wins.'" More on the trapped racist rats gnawing at their legs. (thanks to Richard in the Keys)