2009
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Mr. Romance
“Some books are meant to be judged by their covers. You know the kind: Comanche Rose, Petticoats and Pistols, Tender Warrior, Sea of Desires. You see them lined up in airport book stores and supermarket wire racks, their embossed titles…
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“Life,” “Man,” “Love,” and “Winter”
A recent post at The Millions, Best American Short Stories: By the Numbers, inspired a writer at B.O.M.M. to create a word cloud (using Wordle) mapping the most common words in the titles of stories that have appeared in the…
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The Bigness of the World
There’s a lot to smile at in The Bigness of the World, Lori Ostlund’s Flannery O’Conner Award-winning collection—but there aren’t a lot of jokes. In fact, over the course of a dozen stories, Ostlund presents all kinds of suffering: death,…
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Handwriting on the Way Out
The history of handwriting and handwriting systems is sketched out in this article by Oberlin professor and GOOD columnist Anne Trubek. Trubek also sketches out the history of the writing machines that began to replace handwriting from 1874 onward, with…
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Mummy Was a Robot, Daddy Was a Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil
Illustrations by E. Benyaminson for Hello, I’m Robot! by Stanislav Zigunenko (Russia, 1989). This is the first post of a series featuring my recently-acquired collection of Soviet children’s books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
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Smith and the City
With the release of her new memoir, Just Kids, which documents her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, punk rock idol Patti Smith has events lined up in and around New York City. Events include readings and musical performances in support…
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Morning Coffee
A melting polar bear makes the point pretty clearly. Some of Berlin’s mighty fine outdoor art installations. Let’s face it, science is boring. Laredo Texas has no use for your books. Letters of Note (my current favorite website) brings us…
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Long Before Lady Gaga
There was Gerald (and Sara) Murphy: Looking comfortably mechanical at the Comte Étienne de Beaumont’s Automotive Ball in 1924. P.s. How awesome is it that there was such a costume ball? P.p.s. Looks like Gerald’s costume came complete with a…
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Random Media Notes
David Carr counts the media industry’s blessings: “After a Year of Ruin, Some Hope.” The Economist rolls out a social networking plan. Condé Nast was hacked: a large swath of GQ‘s editorial content hit the internet before the magazine hit…
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #15
POWDERED WIGS ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing powdered wigs.