I Heart You
(This craze started by Jennifer. It’s like the Internerd equivalent of your desk in elementary school on V-Day.)
R.I.P. Molly Ivins
My hero. I can’t quite deal with this one yet.
When Ann Richards shook off this mortal coil last year, the only way I could quite find to deal with it was by calling on the words of Molly Ivins.
It makes me angry that she’s gone, and sad beyond reckoning. A real remembrance to come when I can be a bit less maudlin.
What a lady.
Here’s a bit from her last column in mid-January:
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous.
Raise hell. Now that’s a legacy.
Updated: Some memorable quotes here.
AND how lame is it that the NYT apparently still refuses to run "gang pluck"? You’ve got to be kidding!
Best tributes, of course, to be found at The Observer.
R.I.P. Molly Ivins Read More »
VeronicaMarsTalk
And tonight we have:
Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves. When Veronica (Kristen Bell) is hired to track down a girl (guest star Brianne Davis, "Entourage") with whom Max (guest star Adam Rose, "Malcolm in the Middle") shared an incredible one-night stand, she discovers the girl is not who she says she is. Meanwhile, Keith (Enrico Colantoni) takes a closer look at Dean O’Dell’s suicide and begins searching for clues that may point to a murder. Percy Daggs, Jason Dohring, Francis Capra, Michael Muhney, Ryan Hansen, Tina Majorino, Chris Lowell and Julie Gonzalo also star. John Kretchmer directed the episode written by Diane Ruggiero.
Tuesday Hangovers
- Meg Rosoff is seeking a title (common problem, lately!) and Mark Haddon suggested Sodomised Roughly By Pirates.
- Terri Windling reflects on children’s book writers, in addition to Beatrix Potter, who’ve been altered for the big screen.
- A long, spirited discussion about the Newbery results, and issues of seriousness and diversity. (Via somebody, but I forgot who.)
- Baby pandas! (Via La Gringa.)
- Battlestar Gallactica haiku from Darby.
- Jane Smiley on Barbaro’s death.
Teeny Monday Hangovers
- Meg Rosoff interview at Not Your Mother’s Bookclub.
- Cynthia Leitich Smith on male vs. female communication styles.
- The one and only Alan DeNiro posts an excerpt of his novel in progress, World Fantasy. Simon says check it out.
- The Land of Oz.
- Jonathan Lethem gets promiscuous with ideas and rights. Check it out. (Thanks, Richard!)
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Heroes Yammer
Survey says:
Hiro continues to search for a sword while being chased by mysterious figures when his father appears. Isaac, now clean from drugs, commits to preventing the New York bombing and Peter. An invisible man named Claude has something to teach one of the heroes. D.L. takes on new family responsibilities, and Matt opens up to his wife. H.R.G. continues to focus on the captive Sylar. Claire seeks out the Haitian and then her birth parents. Mohinder looks for those on the list, and receives a strange visitor.
C’mon, no voiceover!
Yes!
It’s always nice to wake up on a Monday morning and find out that the best town in which to survive the coming apocalypse* may be forty minutes from where I grew up:
This is not a new theory, but there is a new book out that backs the premise with all kinds of sleep-killing stuff like that we’re a million years overdue for a good mass extinction. And that the Earth’s magnetic field is developing a crack. And that the Yellowstone supervolcano is about to catapult those tiny 10 percent of us who survive it into nuclear winter.
A planet holds its collective breath. But wait, the author thinks there might be one place on Earth that can just survive the whole shebang intact.
Berea.
*Mayan, of course.
Saturday Hangovers (Updated)
- The ever-fabulous Colleen has read Cecil Castellucci’s forthcoming Beige and apparently loved it as much as I did, which is to say LOTS. Closer to the release date I will sing the full praises of this novel, but I will say that I believe this is my favorite book of Cecil’s to date and that’s no small thing. Plus, it made me go listen to lots of my favorite punk bands. Pre-order Beige now; I’ll wait.
J.L. Bell ruminates a bit on the hot topic of point of view.- Chicken Spaghetti has all the links from participants in yesterday’s Poetry Friday.
- The divine Carolyn Kellogg (aka Pinky) alerted me to a call for submissions from Hot Metal Bridge, the new literary mag of the University of Pittsburgh’s MFA program, which will debut in April. Go forth and submit.
- Colum McCann’s new novel Zoli is loosely based on the life of famed Polish Gypsy poet Papusza.
- Cory Doctorow loves the conclusion of Justine’s trilogy so much he’s BoingBoinged it. It’s sitting over on the kitchen table right now, waiting for me to get a spare moment, but I suspect I’ll be seconding his opinion.
- Why has Grey’s Anatomy been sort of sucking this season? Could it be Marti Noxon’s influence? (Scroll to the very end of the post.)
- Aurealis Award winners? Anyone?
UPDATE: Gavin has posted an unofficial list of Aurealis winners in the comments. Guess I’m finally going to have to break down and read Monster Blood Tattoo.
Saturday Hangovers (Updated) Read More »
Best Crawford List Ever
From Locus Online:
Finalists for this year’s Crawford Award, for the best first book by a new fantasy writer, are Daniel Abraham’s A Shadow in Summer, Alan De Niro’s Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child, Theodora Goss’s In The Forest of Forgetting, Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire, and M. Rickert’s Map of Dreams. The award has been given annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts since 1985 and was originally funded by a gift from Andre Norton. Nominators for this year’s award included Kelly Link, Graham Sleight, Niall Harrison, Jonathan Strahan, Farah Mendlesohn, and Gary K. Wolfe. The award will be presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, March 14-18 in Fort Lauderdale.
Yay for Alan, Mary Rickert and Dora Goss! (Thanks, Gavin!)
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Thursday Hangovers
- Bookshelves of Doom recommends Justine’s Magic or Madness. Which I clearly endorse. Book three will be here before you know it, so now’s the perfect time to catch up on the first two.
- This is very book.
- Terri Windling posts about all sorts of Marina Warner-related goodness. I had forgotten about Phantasmagoria, but must have it.
- The one and only Dave Schwartz reviews Pan’s Labyrinth for Strange Horizons, which we saw over the weekend and thought was utterly fabulous.
- Chicken Spaghetti does a great service by reprinting Deborah J. Lightfoot’s "Get Your Books AR Listed" from the SCBWI Bulletin on those mysterious accelerated reading lists and how they happen.
- This little piece on The Office reveals that Ed Helms in a bluegrass band called Lonesome Trio.
- Rosemary Mosco’s awesome 55 word stories. From the latest: "My secret power is pathetic fallacy." (Via Karen.)
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