November 03, 2006
October 26, 2006
I am totally making this!
And the Sherlock Holmes book to open the secret door is a nice touch.
September 19, 2006
Dr. Seuss taxidermy
September 15, 2006
The Brick Testament
A retelling of the old testament bible stories with LEGO bricks. These are actually fairly in-depth retellings." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife." There are even books!
July 13, 2006
58%...
...of the US adult population never reads another book after high school. That surprising stat may turn out to be a bit pessimistic but I still would bet that people exaggerate their book reading on most surveys.
June 10, 2006
Minneapolis to try fixing broken windows.
Based on the broken windows theory that if you fix the little things the big things get easier to manage, " Minneapolis police are considering a New York-style attack on loitering, aggressive panhandling, intimidation, drug-selling, loud cursing and other disorderly behavior at downtown bus stops and along sidewalks in the city's core. While downtown Minneapolis is uncommonly free of serious crime, bands of obstreperous and unpredictable youths and other assorted street characters give the opposite impression."
Later in the article Deputy Police Chief Rob Allen tells of his experience:
"...walking down Hennepin Avenue in full uniform and being forced off the curb by a line of gangster lookalikes.(sic) "If that's their level of respect for me, imagine how they treat other people," he said. ...getting hassled feeds a perception of danger, and in these matters perception is everything."
I feel old, and white and suburban saying so but I have felt intimidated down near the heart of Minneapolis (Block E) and while I don't really think anything will happen, I do have a much more heightened awareness and resent the way I am made to feel towards these young kids.
April 26, 2006
Thomas Frank savages new Joe Klein book
Thomas Frank, author of the somewhat controversial What's the Matter With Kansas summarizes Klein's new book, Politics Lost : How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid by cutting to the thesis of the work: Liberalism sucks, authenticity rocks. Klein supports this view by using the following themes throughout the book:
- The courageousness of centrism
- The mystical greatness of Bill Clinton
- When Democrats lose elections, it’s nearly always the fault of boring old liberalism
Frank posits that Klein really believes the following to be true:
"It’s only when Democrats are most like Republicans on the economic issues—when they offer voters the least amount of choice—that they’re being most radical, most funky, most true to themselves."
February 28, 2006
ABC's LOST reviving sales for obscure book
Seen briefly on the ABC hit series "Lost," a surreal comic novel by an Irish author who died 40 years ago has been rescued from obscurity... The novel, "The Third Policeman," was written by Flann O'Brien (1911-66), who was influenced by James Joyce, and fans of "Lost" are apparently scouring it for clues to the mysterious island where passengers from a downed airliner are marooned. Craig Wright, a supervising producer and scriptwriter for "Lost," said the book, seen on an episode first broadcast in the United States in October, was chosen "very specifically for a reason." Within two days of the broadcast, 10,000 copies were sold. "It's been amazing," said Chad Post, associate director of the Center for Book Culture at Illinois State University in Normal, publisher of O'Brien's books in the United States. "In three weeks, we sold 15,000 copies, the same number as we'd sold in the last six years.
January 11, 2006
Contrary to erroneous published reports, Random House, Inc. is not offering a *special* refund on A Million Little Pieces.
"It has long been standard Random House Inc. procedure to direct consumers, who want a refund on any of the tens of thousands of books we publish, back to their retail place of purchase, unless they purchased the book directly from us, in which case, we refund it. Yesterday we had 15 calls to our customer service line specific to A Million Little Pieces and fewer than that today."