It’s official: most popular bloggers are thieves. It ain’t just link poaching either. (And because I try not to be a thief, via MeFi.)

Also, who knew? (via Wonkette)

One more thing: Am I the only one who thinks that John Garfield was the Keanu of his time? Garfield has exactly two expressions he resorts to: looking up and looking down. This limited yet distracting dichotomy has worked against my total enjoyment of such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice and Body and Soul (and it’s particularly shameful in the latter case). When Garfield offers the rare expression working against the two looks, it comes across as a pretty boy using all six brain cells in his arsenal to come up with something tantamount to the worst community theatre histrionics. Garfield often looks pained when he attempts this, as if he’s suffering from hemorrhoids. And his posturing is egregious when he’s trying to come off as a tough guy.

I could be totally wrong on this, but frankly I just don’t understand why John Garfield should be regarded. Give me the underrated Steve Cochran or even straight-shooter Robert Cummings any day.

Okay, now I’m really outta here.

Ruthless deadlines keep me away from the blog until Monday. I’m not permitted one post, one word, one link until this work backlog’s caught up (the downside of getting well). So sayeth the self-discipline imp cracking the whip. I wish Tony Clifton would come in and guest blog while I’m away, but alas. Enjoy some of the fine folks on the left.

No, Tina. “Eventoid” is a dumb word. Not even Safire on his most addled afternoon could sanction it.

After years bouncing around the courts, the Neil Gaiman-Todd McFarlane trial has wrapped. Heroes can be copyrighted. Gaiman has won $2-5 million from being screwed over. After paying attorney’s fees, Gaiman’s devoting the remaining sum over to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Gaiman, now in the running for Coolest Guy on the Planet, has been called “a shameful opportunist” by McFarlane. “I’m nice too,” said McFarlane. “Just not as nice as Neil.”

With Darren Aronofsky, he helped wow and depress the hell out of filmgoers with Requiem for a Dream. Now hard-boiled novelist Hubert Selby, Jr. is back with Fear X. Nicolas Refn is the director. John Turturro stars. Kubrick’s cameraman, Larry Smith, was enlisted. Selby co-wrote the script. And instead of the Kornos Quartet, it’s Brian Eno on the soundtrack. “The movie is very, very, very depressing,” said the Telegraph. “But it’s also very good. Even our harshest critic couldn’t get out of bed for several days.”

The Age talks with Andrea Levy. Her novels are inspired by racial identity, much of it related to her parents coming from Jamaica to Britain, thinking that they would be considered white, only to be singled out.

Here’s a new angle for an Anne Rice profile: her relationship with her late husband.

Reason No. 3,624 to Vote for Kerry: States are getting creative with their budgets. Denied resources by a federal government too busy cutting taxes for the rich and spending its way out of control, Alabama has an unusual idea. In an effort to buy school textbooks, a Bingo for Books proposal is on the table.

A Pennsylvania public library has placed five sexual instruction books on the reference shelves, rather than the stacks. Now residents hoping to learn about positions other than missionary or the joys of gay sex will have to do so at a public refectory table, instead of the privacy of their own homes. The number of successful orgasms in Broomall, PA is expected to drop by 16% over the next year.

A chat with J.K. Rowling revealed the following: There may be more than seven books. Harry Potter will continue growing up. Harry Potter will enter a Hogwarts halfway house.

So who is National Book Critics Award winner Edward Jones?

1. He received a telephone message from his agent urging him to continue.
2. Here’s an excerpt. The novel, for those who don’t know, is about a black slave owner.
3. Jones began to write after being let go from a job he held for 19 years condensing articles for a trade journal. The novel has sold 100,000 copies.
4. Jones is 53 and lives alone in a Washington, D.C. apartment.
5. He grew up poor, moving “18 times in 18 years.” His mother could not read or write.
6. Jones couldn’t make friends, so he read books (including comic books).
7. Here’s an NPR link for audiophiles.