A Progressive on the Prairie

Weekend marginalia

It’s just been too nice to spend time staring at a computer screen so linkage has been sparse here lately. But there’s been various, perhaps rather eclectic, items recently I thought worth passing along:

One thing that didn’t make me happy this week was learning that the first major art gallery exhibit by Bob Dylan closes in London three days before I will be there — and part of the exhibit is just a couple blocks from where we’re staying.
I never knew Kafka was a work comp attorney.
Saving books in the Iowa floods. (Via.)
And The Big Picture collects several of the amazing photographs from the flooding. (PSA: If your haven’t subscribed to The Big Picture in your RSS reader, you’re often missing extraordinary photos.)
What he said.
Asinine idea meet asinine idea: After announcing a copyright stance on bloggers quoting its stories, the Associated Press says it plans to meet with something called the Media Bloggers Association to help form guidelines. My prior comments about that organization pale in comparison to updated information about its founder (and only member?).
To celebrate the supposed discovery of ice on Mars, The Big Picture (yes, that site again) gives us Martian Skies.
Best South Dakota blog name? The new “The ‘F’ Word: Feminists in South Dakota.”
A twist on the “best of” idea. Critics and authors pick their “most-loathed books.” (Via.)
Continuing its run in various SF awards, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won the Locus Award for best SF novel. Having read the book, I think some of the attention is coming from the fact another “mainstream” author has ventured into genre fiction.