Quick Hits
February 7, 2008
Frank Wilson, An Editor Who Tried Something New 1
by C. Max Magee
Tomorrow is Frank Wilson’s final day as book editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is notable not just because fragile book sections can ill afford to lose advocates like Wilson and not just because of the boisterous and popular link blog, Books, Inq, that Wilson ran on the side (and has hinted he will continue.) [...]
February 6, 2008
On Garner’s Usage: In Praise of Exacting Prose 1
by Derek Teslik
Derek Teslik is still in his 20s for 15 more days and lives in Washington, DC. A few weeks ago Max posted about the “rules of writing.” About a week later, Garth revisited David Foster Wallace’s essay “Up, Simba!” which was published in the 2005 essay collection Consider the Lobster. “Tense Present: Democracy, English, and [...]
February 5, 2008
If… 1
by Noah Deutsch
If you like the New York Giants,Or just happen to live in New York and listen to sports radio;If you have heard how fickle Giants fans have treated their quarterback,Doubting his abilities with every unkind bounce of the ball;If you were subjected to any amount of Superbowl hypeIn which Eli Manning was measured without end [...]
January 31, 2008
Will This Be the Most Profitable Super Bowl Ever? 1
by Patrick Brown
The WGA writers’ strike (should that all be capitalized? has it been trademarked yet?) has hit the economy of Los Angeles in a big way, hurting everybody from the top down. Some idiot actually predicted that the strike would be over by Christmas (D’oh!). Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and LA has really suffered. But will [...]
January 29, 2008
Parrots, Pirates, and Prostheses 6
by Emily Colette Wilkinson
A friend who has long since gotten out of the literary scholarship racket was once, briefly, quite intent on writing a dissertation entitled “Parrots, Pirates, and Prostheses.” I have a vague recollection that the argument was to involve something about how pirates seem often to lose hands, legs, and eyes, and that along with their [...]
January 29, 2008
The Oracle at Google, or Bible Dipping for a Disenchanted Age 5
by Emily Colette Wilkinson
As anyone with a Gmail account knows, to send or receive an e-mail through Google’s electronic mail service is to have the impression that someone else is reading your mail. Mention the military in an e-mail – even disparagingly – and you will see, in the sidebar, beside the composition window, an ad for GoArmy.com. [...]
