Other
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How Not to Write a Book Review
Robert Pinksy, writing at Slate, reintroduces us to John Wilson Croker and John Gibson Lockhart, two critics who hated John Keats. Croker loathed Keats so badly that he’s most remembered for this review, and that’s something, given that he also…
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LA Libraries are Back
The entirety of LA’s 73 public libraries will be running in full force—the first time this kind of operational simultaneity has happened since August 2010, when budget cuts enforced some immediate cutbacks. You can thank Measure L, the ballot which…
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The Last Poem I Loved: “Some Feel Rain” by Joanna Klink
While still an undergrad, I was lucky enough to attend a reading by Joanna Klink. We had been reading her second book, Circadian, in my poetry class that week, and I was eager to hear some of the poems that…
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Wendi Murdoch and her Chick-Lit Potential
The biography of Wendi Murdoch, is apparently a chick-lit story waiting to happen. Defending her husband from the fierce pie flinging attack that happened two days ago in London, she’s cemented a fan-base and has thus become somewhat of a…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Holy cow, y’all check out Pluto’s new moon? Riding around the universe in Einstein’s tomb. Perhaps you want to build a bomb in the 16th century. Way to x-ray a sloth scientists. It’s nice to think about what might come…
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With Every New Edition, A New Schema of Labeling
With the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) due for publication in May 2013, the classification of mental disorders and the categorization of psychiatric definitions is yet again being reviewed, revised,…
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“Famous for the Wrong Book”
Oftentimes an author’s most popular work is not actually his or her best, qualitatively speaking. What about those other under-the-radar books that don’t seem to get to get credit where credit’s due? Joseph Heller wrote other books beside Catch-22, right?…
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Poetry Series Suspended
UC California Press is facing cutbacks, and their New California Poetry series is taking the hit. The series, because each title sells only around 1,000 copies, has been suspended. Even after the semi-recent publication of The Autobiography of Mark Twain,…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Another day, another set of abandoned power plant photos. We all need Soviet kids books sometimes. Long story short: snakes and possums hate each other. Update from yesterday: volcanoes! My city has some great shut down movie theaters (also did…
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Getting Lucky
What does luck have to do with memory? The connection is drawn in this Millions essay, which tackles the role of memory in the life of the reader–a rather comforting discussion for those of use who feel the anxious tug…
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Does My Word Sound Big?
Have we been overlooking sound symbolism? Recent studies have shown that humans connect certain sounds with sensory perceptions and thus, the sound of a word could hint at its meaning. This article addresses how the idea fits into theories on…
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This is the Kind of Letter You Frame
Some letters are sweet, informative and sentimental, and others are like this one, from Hunter S. Thompson to his biographer, William McKeen. It’s pithy. It starts strong and finishes stronger. It has serious fear-and-loathing undertones. Check it out. (via @MaudNewton)