- Now listen up, folks. The Oxford Word of the Year is “locavore.” I haven’t used this word at all this year — not in writing or conversation — and now I’m feeling some pressure to insert this in my everyday vernacular in ways that that the Oxford people, much less the progenitors of the word, haven’t possibly imagined.
- When I think of literacy, Jenna Bush is one of the last names that come to mind. But all this makes me wonder how Dan Quayle is faring these days. (By the way, did you know that Quayle
is the onlywas one of the few vice presidents in American history never to be nominated for the presidency by his own party?) - While the rest of you folks are getting all excited about the National Book Awards, the New York Daily News has been talking with Joseph O’Connor.
- A rare first edition of Wuthering Heights will go on sale in London. One of the top bidders is rumored to be six-year-old Dalia Stafford, daughter of a tobacco tycoon. Stafford hopes that Daddy will bid on the book because she’s grown tired of commonplace coloring books and hopes for something a little more exotic to use her Crayolas on.
- Marvel has kick-started an online archive of 2,500 back issues.
- Writers warped on the big screen! It goes without saying that a writer’s life is far less glamorous than you think. (via Tayari)
- Dan Green: not a fan of late Ian McEwan. Nor Steven Augustine.
- Red beans and rice on Amtrak? What next? Tofurkey burgers? I’m not going to rest, folks, until I can order a tofurkey burger with a side of nacho cheese. I have no intention of eating this, mind you, but I want to teach Amtrak a lesson. (via Henry Kisor)
- McSweeney’s 2? WTF? (via Tao)
- I didn’t know this until today, but Dave Lull has a blog.
- The ghosts of Conan Doyle.
- Apparently, reading aloud helps the heart, the soul, and the mind. But the jury is out on whether it will help you get laid. Nevertheless, in light of a soliloquy I wrote for a play involving the benefits of counting, which had the character spouting off a lot of bullshit science, it’s funny to see that this character wasn’t too far off.
- A report from Chad Post on a translation panel.
- The Top Five Online Art Videos of 2007.
- Kevin Holtsberry wants to know what makes a good blog. Do drop by and offer your thoughts.
- Finally, the Other Ed is in great distress! He is trapped, Collyer brothers-style, in his apartment, and needs someone to excavate all the galleys and ARCs that have immersed him there. I have been spending the morning getting quotes from mercenaries. The best quote I have is from Oswald Grizzaldi, who can throw a few grenades into Mr. Park’s apartment for about $275. Which I think is a pretty reasonable price. Unfortunately, Mr. Grizzaldi cannot guarantee that Mr. Park will escape unmaimed. And Mr. Grizzaldi refuses to offer insurance for his operation, telling me that I need to keep him on retainer for at least six operations in order to ensure that nobody will get hurt. My thinking here is that a few other souls face the same plight that Mr. Park does. So if you need Mr. Grizzaldi to throw some grenades into your apartment, let me know and we’ll see if we can’t extract a few literary people out of their respective piles. In fact, maybe what’s needed here is a special forces unit dropping a few machetes in by chopper, along with an instruction manual titled HOW TO HACK YOUR WAY OUT OF A JUNGLE OF GALLEYS. The unexpected bonus? An unstoppable force of professionally trained machete-hackers who might find their skills called upon when the next revolution goes down. If you have any better ideas, please let me know. This is a matter of delicacy and urgency.
Author / Edward Champion
The Young and the Gutless
Variety: “According to several people with knowledge of the situation, a high-ranking writer-producer on CBS’s ‘The Young and the Restless’ has informed the WGA that he plans to go ‘financial core’ — that is, give up full membership in the guild and withhold the dues spent on political activities in order to continue writing during the strike.”
National Book Awards Coverage
Folks, I’m wiped after a day that started at 5:00 AM. But I hope to have a somewhat lengthy report from tonight’s 5 Under 35 event up after I’ve had a few hours of sleep.
Also, we’ve assembled a crazy crew of bloggers, including Jason Boog, Marydell, Levi Asher, and Sarah Weinman, who will be providing you with live coverage of the National Book Awards on Wednesday night. We’ll have text, pictures, video, and just about every damn thing that technology will permit us to do in a few days as the awards happen! You’re not going to want to miss this, folks. And if you have any specific things you want this group to uncover, let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
I also have a few exclusive items that I’ll be posting on when the report goes up. Needless to say, after my conversations tonight, it appears that Denis Johnson is considered to be the favorite, but there appears to be a consensus that there could be an upset victory from Jim Shepard. We’ll see how the speculation holds out.
Okay. Now about to collapse. More craziness to ensue!
The Guest Blogger
There is an exotic gentleman named Joshua Henkin now blogging at The Elegant Variation. He is guest blogging with some prolificity and even referring to previous guest blogging appearances. I get the sense that if it was possible for him to guest blog for eternity, he would do so if he had the chance. In fact, I’ve now hit Page Down six times and there are still posts by Joshua Henkin. Which leads me to believe that it is no longer the place to find Mark Sarvas, but the place to find Joshua Henkin. Whether the exotic gentleman will become an exotic dancer, perhaps posting a YouTube video offering indisputable evidence that he has in fact made the switch from “gentleman” to “dancer” (or perhaps he is both!), is one of those maddening questions that leaves me in some suspense. I am convinced that Joshua Henkin may do something very crazy, something that will make my jaw drop like the final scene of a Hitchcock film.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is to suggest that you experience the Joshua Henkin Experience. And if you don’t want to do this, you can always live vicariously through me with this post. And if that option isn’t good enough, you can always leave a comment here informing me how out of touch I am, or reminding me that I haven’t yet touched Joshua Henkin. And I will respond later with needless over-the-top bravado. All I have to say is thank heavens I’m wearing pants right now.
A Diversion for Writers
If, like me, you’ve written somewhere in the area of 5,000 words to meet various deadlines over the past three days, I highly recommend Alien Arena as a way to stay sane. It’s an open-source first-person shooter that offers pretty solid texture and lightning, a humbling AI (I am still suffering the taunting computer voice repeatedly telling me in hard mode, “The bots have won. You will have to replay the level again.” Or maybe my fragging skills have atrophied.), and it runs quite smoothly on a mid-grade processor.
One thing’s for sure: you can never go wrong with robots and lasers as a diversion.