"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
In honor of the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week 2010, which starts today, here is a special roundup of banned book news, and a comment on Wilbur Smith’s The Dark of the Sun. Wondering which ten books drew the most fire over the past year? Here’s your answer. Corrected entry (see comment below post): […]
Two weeks ago, in anticipation of an upcoming visit from a friend, Donna started to paint the guest bedroom. “Let’s rip out the carpet while we’re at it, and put in wood laminate flooring,” she said, and my heart sank. Why? Because I knew it would turn into a huge project, not confined to one […]
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the day I find a professional quality, syntactically correct, properly-spelled phishing appeal in my inbox is the day I’ll join the army of fools who’ve been gulled by flim-flammers. Should this hypothetical professional quality, syntactically correct, properly-spelled phishing appeal also be literate, I’ll throw in my […]
I didn’t get around to watching Jon Stewart’s September 16th Daily Show until last night. By then I’d already seen some blog reaction to the “Rally to Restore Sanity” announcement, so I knew what was coming. Even so, I was shocked. A “million moderate march”? I literally squirmed in embarrassment, all the more so as […]
“Over the city lies the sweet, rotting odor of yesterday’s unrecollected sins.” – Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley I read Christopher Buckley’s editorials and essays with interest, but cannot endorse his fiction. Since I found my copy of Boomsday on the remainder shelf at Barnes & Noble, I suspect other readers have […]
“Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love ’em. ” — George Clooney as Ryan Bingham Up in the Air (2009). […]
It has been a while since I’ve photoblogged a bicycle ride. Let’s do something about that, shall we? We have our own bicycling group, the Spanish Trail Trash. This morning’s ride consisted of the Trail Trash core: Mary Anne (our leader), Darrell, Donna, and me. We met by the Rillito bike path at Campbell and […]
Remember Fredric Wertham, the 1950s anti-comic-book crusader? The Library of Congress has opened his private papers to scholars of censorship. Is that a photo of a man’s butt on the cover? Your book has just been banned in Canada! A new front in the fight against censorship: guerrilla libraries. Bummer. The small-brainers in Stockton, Missouri […]