Weekend Edition: 9-4

Bulletin Board

• Bad blogosphere news. Ken Blanchard’s Jazz Note is shutting down. While Ken and I are probably on opposite sides of the political spectrum, jazz is a beautiful common ground. Good news for Aberdeen area residents, though, as Ken will evidently begin hosting a jazz show on NSU radio. Thanks for the blog, Ken!

Headlines of the Week

• Butts Arrested in Boob Murder Case (via)
• A Scientific Study into the Philosophical Question of Identity, or: Who the Fuck am I?

Worthy Reading in the Interweb Tubes

• Over the moon: Adam Phillips on the happiness myth (“Our relation to happiness often betrays an unconscious desire for disillusionment.”) (via)
• Sex, Drugs, and Mudsharks: The Triumph of the Rock Biography (“I would like to apologize to the memory of Phil Lynott, Ireland’s greatest ever rock star, for placing him in the same section of my article as Justin Bieber.”)

Bookish Linkage

• I have been to six of Flavorwire‘s top 10 bookstores in the U.S.
• Although Banned Books Week doesn’t officially start until the end of the month, some YA book bloggers are starting the campaign for intellectual freedom early by encouraging a month-long blogging effort and creating a reading challenge. I will probably do another series, as I did last year.
• Stephen Hawking invokes Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in promoting his new book but says it it is “not necessary to invoke God” when it comes to the universe. Besides, Adams is a better writer.
• E-books in correctional institutions, “a niche market .” (via)
• Nominations are open for the 2010 Not the Booker Prize.
• Strong candidate for worst book title of the year (at least from the viewpoint of men): Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers (via)
• Is the author’s skin color the determinative factor in the placement of books at Walmart? (via)

Nonbookish Linkage

• Foxes in henhouses
• Student loans make education affordable. Or do they? (via)
• Advertising and reality for Quizno’s sandwiches.

Thelonius Monk