Bulletin Board
- How big a national laughingstock is South Dakota with legislation to require everyone 21 and older to own a gun, arguably authorizing killing physicians who perform abortions and outlawing surrogacy? An email from my daughter attending the University of Massachusetts this week: “I told somebody I was from North Dakota yesterday to avoid the straight up embarrassment.” Things are scraping the bottom of the barrel to cause someone from South Dakota to claim they’re from their neighbor to the north.
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Straddling a Fault Line (“I want joy. I want a career. I want normal. I want to understand. I want you to understand. I want you to fix me. I want a pill. I don’t want a pill. I want help. I don’t want help. I don’t want to go to a psychiatrist. I want to see a psychiatrist every day. I want death. I want life. I want to stop wanting. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”)
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
- SF Signal looks at the Doc Savage series, one I devoured when I was young.
- A Russian author has a different take on another series I read when I was younger (although several years after the Doc Savage books). The Last Ringbearer looks at the years after the conclusion of the Lord of the Rings trilogy from the standpoint of the losers.
- Reading is overrated
- Books you loved at 16 that fall flat now.
- Ten literary novels for those who tend toward the SF/F genre.
Nonbookish Linkage
- Nominations are open for the Worst Company in America 2011 award. (In case you’re curious, Comcast was last year’s winner.)
- Think most of today’s movies suck? (And they do.) Blame Top Gun. (via)
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy
