I love this detail from Brandon Sanderson's explanation of the decision to turn the final Wheel of Time novel into 3 parts:
When I'd mentioned 400k to him once, he'd been wary. He explained to me that he felt 400k was unprintably large in today's publishing …
Read more… • Posted in: fantasy
Some things should be, on the contrary, celebrated for their very groundedness and averageness and relatability. Human interest stories — when they're of true human interest (rather than the products of cable's attempts to sensationalize the serious …
Read more… • Posted in: links, news, words
Matt Bors points out that political cartoons are frequently described, maybe attributed to a paper, but rarely to an author.
It may seem like a small gripe, but this is routinely how cartoons are referenced in the media. You would never quote a brilliant …
Read more… • Posted in: links, rant
If you're over 30, you'll probably press a doorbell with your index finger, while anyone under 30 may well use their thumb.
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There's a fascinating article at CJR, "What We Didn't Know Has Hurt Us", about the explosion of classified documents under the Bush administration.
I found this bit mind-boggling:
Far more troubling was the revelation in 2006 that more than twenty-five …
Read more… • Posted in: links, politics, secrecy
CJR has a fantastic interview with Michael Hudson on the origins of the financial crisis, and his background reporting on poverty issues becomes extremely relevant. It's one of the best resources I've seen, with about a dozen links to background stories …
Read more… • Posted in: econ, journalism, links
So, we've had blogs and the intarwebs for some time now, but it still feels a bit like the wild-west frontier at times. It's fun to see people exploring the medium, trying to find new ways to connect, or just make a buck.
In an interview with The A.V …
Read more… • Posted in: geek-culture, links, reading
'Tis the season for mixing horror and chocolate, with frighteningly delicious results!
Would you believe that H.P. Lovecraft used to write copy for Whitman's Sampler? (McSweeney's) Like the following:
Chocolate Cherry Cordial You must not think me mad …
Read more… • Posted in: chocolates, cthulhu, links
Salon.com interviews Berkley Breathed about the end of his long-running, oft-revived cartoon character & strip. I thought this quote was touching, in a melancholy sort of way:
The very, absolute last comic strip characters destined to become true …
Read more… • Posted in: comics, links
Michael Pollan, author of the very well-written The Omnivore's Dilemna, has penned a timely and flat-out brilliant op-ed for the NYT. Though a tad long-ish, the whole thing is well worth reading.
This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture …
Read more… • Posted in: food, links