Other
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Why Starting a Book is Hard
“As soon as we feel that the writing we are contemplating matters, our defensive system kicks in, and our fear that we can’t think well enough raises its ugly head. We are wrestled to the ground by the fact that…
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Evening Cocktail
Hope it was as beautiful today in your town as it was in mine. Had dinner yet? Dear Pork: I am in love with you. [I Made That!] An Infinite Jest concordance, to help you during Infinite Summer. [via @Fritinancy]…
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Counterfeit Smokes
“On first approach, Yunxiao seems like any other Chinese backwater caught in an uneasy industrial transition. Faded advertisements line the downtown streets, where motorcyclists wearing bamboo-frond hats vie for paying passengers in a riot of honking. A cheerful red banner…
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Morning Coffee
It sure is hot these days. Wired on the personhood of whales. A famous person has died. DJs buy own music using stolen cards. The coolest bridge in the entire world: the Falkirk Wheel. IFC on the greatest movie trailers…
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Evening Cocktail
A word of explanation: because the Morning starts with Coffee, the Evening starts with a Cocktail, served promptly at half-past six by your attentive host. You can imagine the cocktail as being non-alcoholic, if you prefer; but if you choose…
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Welcome to the Night Shift
I’m an insomniac, and many times these past few months I’ve checked this site at three or four in the morning, and found that nothing had appeared since the previous evening, when it was still light out in San Francisco.…
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When Pigs Fly
The e-ticket I held in my hand entitled me to board two airplanes, which I did. I flew all the way from Cairo International Airport to the glitzy city of Dubai with its innumerable skyscrapers jutting up out of the…
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Morning Coffee
Investigative linguist discovers first known use of “Ms.” in print. (via @randomdeanna) Kush, sleep support for your breasts. An interview with Nic Brown, author of Floodmakers. Disappearing on sex weekends, Republicans like to lie, “I’m working on a book.” Banksy’s…
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Travel As A Political Act
Rick Steves’s recent book, Travel As A Political Act tells us how we can travel more thoughtfully. “Growing up in the U.S., I was told over and over how smart, generous, and free we were. Travel has taught me that…
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In Case You Missed. . .
Last month’s North Beach Poetry Festival, William Taylor, Jr., poet, author of Words For Songs Never Written, and gentleman, has provided a very succinct report of the festival’s events which, incidentally did not appear to include much in the way…
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Junot Diaz’s Favorite New Yorker
At Red Hill Books we keep having to order more Junot Diaz books. It’s really extraordinary. They keep flying off the shelves on a daily basis.
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Discovering Georges Simenon
Maybe because I’m one-quarter Belgian, or so my parents claim, I tend to go out of my way to discover famous Belgians. I’m half-kidding about that but I do admit there was a brief, embarrassing period when I claimed to…