Laura Miller: “We’re so used to linking masculinity with carnivorousness that we seldom stop to recognize how illogical it is. Just because vegetarianism is correlated with pacifism — people who draw the line at killing animals are probably loath to kill human beings, too — it doesn’t follow that eating flesh, and especially the flesh of mammals, causes the battery of aggressive behaviors we choose to call manly. Yet even today, insulting vegetarians is presented as a display of bold, defiant machismo, a way of saying, ‘I understand and embrace the bloody truths of life with lusty vigor, unlike you salad-noshing pansies!'”
Author / Edward Champion
But He Also Forgot Core Areas of Math, Geography and Where to Get the Best Tapas in His Neighborhood
Scientific American: “A patient who damaged his left insula, a region of the brain located deep within the cortex on either lateral side, may have opened the door to kick the habit without even trying. The day after suffering a stroke the 38-year-old man, who had a 40-cigarette-a-day addiction, reported to doctors that his ‘body forgot the urge to smoke.’ This revelation prompted a study that found the insula is intimately linked to smoking addiction.”
The Case Against Malcolm Jones
There’s one other thing I should note about Malcolm Jones’ laziness. I was contacted by the book’s publicist to interview Vikram Chandra. I offered profuse apologies to the very nice publicist, pointing out that, as good as this sounded, I simply did not have the time in my schedule to read the 900-page book. You see, I wanted to give Chandra the same respect that I give to all the authors I talk with, which involves reading the book from start to finish and actively thinking about it.
I have never interviewed a single author in which I have not finished the book. And I refuse to talk with an author in a long-form interview if I am not permitted enough time to do this. (And I’ve had to cancel out on some very good authors because of this. Alas, one can only do so much.)
The mainstream media has long accused bloggers of being lazy reporters. If anything, this Malcolm Jones flap illustrates that some mainstream media reviewers might possibly be lazier.
To me, it seems a requisite that if you are being paid to write a review, whether you like the book or hate it, you should be professional enough to read it to the very end. Whether the book is 200 pages or 1,000 pages. Whether the book is breezy or dense. Whether the book employs arcane words and references or employs a less demanding timbre. That Jones could not fulfill this basic duty suggests to me that he has no business writing book reviews. He should leave this to the professionals.
Clive Owen as Marlowe?
Coming Soon: “Children of Men producer Marc Abraham has revealed to The Courier-Journal that he will reteam with that film’s star Clive Owen for a feature adaptation of one of Raymond Chandler’s short stories. Owen will play the private detective Philip Marlowe.”
How This Will Help Neutered Dogs Looking for a One Night Stand in a Bar with the Neighborhood Tramp is Anyone’s Guess
Newsvine: “After a long day hunting, there’s nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt.”
The question is whether Berenden has accounted for those innocent dogs who will no doubt fall off the wagon, demanding harder liquor when the toilet water simply won’t cut it anymore. While one can discern slurred speech from alcoholics, with a dog’s vernacular reduced to a select group of barks, this does not bode well for future human-assisted intervention. I hope the pet experts have prepared a litany of twelve-bark programs to assist man’s best friends as they barge their way into convenience stores, a bag of pennies and dimes dangling from their incisors, yelping for forty ouncers.