Random Observations
I did it again. Even though I watched the halftime performance Sunday night, I forgot Springsteen tickets went on sale Monday morning. Making it worse, it didn’t sink in until the middle of the night Monday. Of course, perhaps that should be expected from someone who turned the Super Bowl off at the end of the third quarter.
Once again there are complaints about the ticket process, which some called a disaster. And I’m sure it was worse this time around given the millions who had an introduction to the E Street Band live on Sunday night. Even Springsteen’s web site had a letter to fans about the problems.
The “Ya think?!?!?” blog post summary sentence of the week (and a strong candidate for the entire year, if not the decade): “Allegations that the former C.I.A. station chief in Algiers may have filmed himself having sex with women he drugged and raped could impair efforts to improve relations between the United states and the Islamic world.”
Bookish Linkage
Locus has posted its 2008 recommended reading list. The SF category reflects how litte of the genre I read last year as I got to none of the books that made that list (although I have been waiting for the US release of Ken MacLeod’s The Night Sessions). In fact, the only thing on the entire list I read was Cory Doctorow’s YA novel, Little Brother.
An interesting new addition to the blogosphere: The Law and Science Fiction.
Would you pay $5 to jump the line for reserves on popular books and DVDs at the library?
I’ve been in four of the stores on this list of the 10 best independent bookstores in North America. Of those four, it would be tough to pick between Elliott Bay Books in Seattle or Tattered Cover in Denver for my favorite.
Nonbookish Linkage
One “expert’s” opinion of what constitutes the 100 most beautiful English words.
And for grammarians: a British city has banned apostrophes in street signs, evidently because its hard under the queens English to know if theyre supposed to be used in place names.
I figure the odds be fifty-fifty
I just might have something to say
“Fifty-Fifty,” Frank Zappa, Over-Nite Sensation
