Bulletin Board
- Two of my favorite things — books and jazz — come together tomorrow at the local B&N. With this voucher (which will also be available in the store) a percentage of your purchases will be donated to the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society’s Education Fund. The SFJB also plans music and a reading during the event.
Blog Headlines of the Week
- Apocalyptic 2012 Claims Will End In 2012
- Does Suzanne Somers Cause Cancer?
- Cocoa Krispies No Longer Prevent Swine Flu
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- McCulture (“It’s not that Americans aren’t interested in the world at all. It’s just that we seem to want someone else to do the heavy lifting required to make a cultural connection.”) (Via.)
- The ghouls invade Ft. Hood.
Bookish Linkage
- Mmmm, bookshelf pr0n.
- I wonder what this says about the decade, at least in Britain? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tops The Telegraph‘s list of 100 books that defined the decade while Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road tops the list of the 100 best books of the decade compiled by The Times.
- How to find a book without knowing the title or author could be useful for old farts like me. (Via.)
- The Cold War in science fiction.
Nonbookish Linkage
- Even my Catholic grade school head is about to explode so I can’t imagine what true believers might think. First, the Vatican not only says aliens might exist, they might be free of original sin. Then, holy water goes automatic.
- South Dakota ranks fourth in the ratio of dollars spent per student on education to graduation rates — but gets an “F” on making students both college- and workplace-ready.
- Speaking of South Dakota high school graduates, it looks like my youngest daughter picked a college that believes in free speech. But, evidently, not the U.S. Parole Commission.
- Depressing but, somehow, not surprising: 81 percent of Americans never watch or follow professional hockey. Sixty-seven percent of Americans said the same for professional basketball.
- Smells from childhood may have “privileged status” in our brains.
- Finally, if these don’t make you tear up, especially the last one, you have no heart.
Books are a narcotic.
Franz Kafka, quoted in Conversations With Kafka
