BSS #81: Mary Gaitskill

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Feeling triumphant over hepatitis. Author: Mary Gaitskill Subjects Discussed: Emotional mood and writing, Marin County, horticultural details, decomposition and decay, dichotomous…

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Easy Dinero for a Good Cause

The Rake has called for Eggers to offer an explanation for his critical flip-flop on Infinite Jest and, having failed to hear back from Pynchon…

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75 Books, Books #49-55

Book #49 was Tom Tomorrow’s Hell in a Handbasket. This was an entertaining volume of Tomorrow’s This Modern World strip, particularly since these strips were…

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BSS #80: Edward P. Jones

Author: Edward P. Jones Condition of Mr. Segundo: Feeling oppressed by MySpace. Subjects Discussed: Jones’s instinct for precision, specifics, city streets, details within minor characters,…

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When Music Journalism Goes Horribly Wrong

When Music Journalism Goes Horribly Wrong

Eurotrash: “Dean starts off quite puzzlingly, in my opinion. ‘What do you get if you cross a festive cookie snack with a 70′s rock sound…

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Writers With Drinks

Writers With Drinks

A slight change in plans, through no fault of my own: I’m going to be at the January Writers With Drinks instead of the December…

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Everyone Wants a Pony, Ben. Everyone.

Everyone Wants a Pony, Ben. Everyone.

Ben Stein: “People ask how I can be a conservative and still want higher taxes. It makes my head spin, and I guess it shows…

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75 Books, Books #43-48

75 Books, Books #43-48

Book #43 was Harvey Pekar’s The Quitter. As Pekar keeps a great prolificity in his post-retirement years, it’s been fascinating to see him investigating millieus…

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75 Books, Books #33-42

75 Books, Books #33-42

Okay, a version of this post (going through Book #90) has been languishing in my drafts folder for many months. But since I did lay…

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Nike Is NOT, Repeat NOT Sponsoring the New York Times

Nike Is NOT, Repeat NOT Sponsoring the New York Times

New York Times Corrections: “A front-page article on Friday about the board-sports gear businesses run by hardcore practitioners misstated the given name of the chief…

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Roundup (2 of 2)

Roundup (2 of 2)

Pitchfork talks with Tom Waits. (via Anecdotal Evidence) I wonder what the ACLU will have to say about Jesse Jackson’s politically correct fascism. Guess we’ll…

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Roundup (1 of 2)

Roundup (1 of 2)

How did I not know about the Body Heat: Deluxe Edition DVD? This great Lawrence Kasdan film pretty much galvanized noir into cinematic action over…

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Personally, I Always Thought the Name "Parker Brothers" Sucked Ass

Personally, I Always Thought the Name “Parker Brothers” Sucked Ass

ZeFrank on Scrabble

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Bat Segundo Goes MySpace

Bat Segundo Goes MySpace

I’m not sure how this happened. Mr. Segundo is hardly savvy with computers, but he’s somehow nabbed a MySpace page.

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Television: Polluting Your Tongue One Catchphrase at a Time

Television: Polluting Your Tongue One Catchphrase at a Time

For those who enjoy mangling their native vernacular with pop cultural one-liners, TV Land has released the top 100 television catchphrases. Too bad that Ricky…

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Roundup

Daphne Merkin profiles Tom Stoppard. Jerome Weeks reveals the astonishing exorbitance of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The Star serves up an interesting article…

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I Was So Into Radiohead When I First Heard "Kid A" (Because My Friends TOLD Me It Was Cool!)

I Was So Into Radiohead When I First Heard “Kid A” (Because My Friends TOLD Me It Was Cool!)

Leave it to the Rake to uncover a very interesting shift in opinion from Mr. Eggers.

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Al Sharpton Goes Home Without Cookies Or Bloomberg Handshake

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Roundup

Roundup

Mr. Sarvas talks with Jonathan Lethem on all matters Daniel Fuch. Ian McEwan is now fighting another plagiarism rap. RIP William Diehl. I’m sorry, but…

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Post-Thanksgiving Solutions

Post-Thanksgiving Solutions

What is to be done? I have spent the past week gorging like Tip O’Neill at a buffet table and I have spent the morning…

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Power to the People

Power to the People

Reluctant will undergo an overhaul by the end of the year. If you have any features you’d like to see, please let me know in…

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The Rachel Papers

The Rachel Papers

Rachel Cooke: “I’ve written before about the importance of critics. I said, in essence, that they were useful because they know a lot (also, you…

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Inside the Writer's Mind

Inside the Writer’s Mind

Will Self’s writing room in 71 photos. (via The Millions)

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RIP Dave Cockrum

RIP Dave Cockrum

Sad news from Peter David. Comic books legend Dave Cockrum has passed away. More info on Cockrum’s contributions can be found here.

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Atwood Nails It

Atwood Nails It

New York Review of Books: “So if [Richard Powers is] so good, why isn’t he better known? Let me put it another way —why haven’t…

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Happy Thanksgiving

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The "Why the Hell Does Anyone Bother to Work the Day Before Thanksgiving?" Roundup

The “Why the Hell Does Anyone Bother to Work the Day Before Thanksgiving?” Roundup

Top Ten Girl Geeks Scientific American: “Having a word stuck on the tip of the tongue is enough to activate an unusual condition in which…

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Rex Reed on Dick Cavett (1971): Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Rex Reed on Dick Cavett (1971): Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

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Ames Alert

Ames Alert

Regular readers of this site know that I once made a deal with a mysterious stranger at a crossroads. Mention everything that Jonathan Ames does…

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I'm Sure That Gilmore's Employment at Harcourt Had Nothing Whatsoever to Do With This Deal.  NOTHING WHATSOEVER!

I’m Sure That Gilmore’s Employment at Harcourt Had Nothing Whatsoever to Do With This Deal. NOTHING WHATSOEVER!

From Publisher’s Lunch: Paperback rights to Harcourt publicity director Jennifer Gilmore’s GOLDEN COUNTRY, following the intertwining lives of three Jewish immigrants through the 1920s to…

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