belated book plug, just in time for holiday shopping

Antoine Wilson, ’00 classmate and great friend, released his first book this year, The Interloper, — a concise, chilling and darkly comic novel of revenge and the human heart. And you don’t just have my word for it. Others have written glowingly of the book and its plot (link includes reviews from Publishers Weekly, The New Yorker, Booklist). What I would add regards A’s growing skill as a writer. Rereading it again, I was struck by the relentlessness and deftness of each line; every word matters, but none seemingly more so than any other, all to a powerful affect. Frankly, I’m jealous.

For those of you who’ve wondered what it’s like to do a book tour, you can find an interesting account of Antoine’s appearances at his blog, Wot-What.

poetic justice

My one-time pal GM Quinte has been impersonated. You can almost catch the eurostink of Nat Shermans and Valfraise wafting off the thrift-store shirt. Bravo, rogue actor! I almost thought it was you who still owed me money. Dry cleaning ain't socialized in this country, bub. Reagan saw to that.

what is the proper emotional response?

A car directly in front of me at a red light had a bumper sticker that read, "Someone I loved was killed by a drunk driver. I'm MADD." When the light changed, the car didn't move until I beeped. That's when I noticed the driver was talking on a cell phone. Being drunk isn't like being on the phone, but being on the phone isn't like not being on the phone.

ha ha ha

i'm a big boy, now

A tour of the Little League record books shows that, for an American team, success is found by riding on the coattails of a hypertrophic hulk-child.

Thanks: Slate!

why the sopranos ending doesn’t matter

Only turning professional witness offered him a real chance at a new life, or any sense of redemption. Whether he lived another three seconds or three decades, T.S. would die a gangster. How that happened, quite frankly, is incidental. As a character, he reached the end of the line.

I’m surprised there hasn’t been any big comparisons between Tony and literature’s great sociopath – Humbert Humbert. Monsters that need to be loved — on the next Springer.

the burning question nobody asked

Slate magazine asked writers what typeface they prefer when writing. Glad to see Palatino made the top three. I use it for two simple reasons: serif typefaces are easier to read (I'm getting old) and proportional typefaces cram more words in per page (I'm frugal (cheap bastard)). I also use 1.5 line spacing for greater economies. How about y'all?

i made a funny, then they made the same funny

See my 10/03 post on timetables (two posts down), then watch the first minute, originally aired 10/10. I've been robbed, I tell you, robbed! Or not. Whatever.

It should have gotten a bigger laugh, anyway. Stupid audience.

forgetfulness -- billy collins

timetables and testing -- different things, obviously

President Bush, 02/2001, on his Presidential Education Initiative:

The cornerstone of reform, as far as I'm concerned, is not only high standards and maximum flexibility, but strong accountability systems. I think it's so important to measure. I think it's a legitimate thing -- I know it's a legitimate request from those of us in public life to say if you receive taxpayers' money, you measure, and you show us whether or not the children are learning.

And when I ask Congress to pass legislation that says, in return for federal help the state of Tennessee, local jurisdictions must develop accountability measures on an annual basis, 3 through 8, to determine whether or not our children are learning. It is essential we do so.

(my bold)

Now, I know there's some around who will say we can't measure, it's not the proper role of the government. Well, I believe the proper role of any government at any level is to insist upon results.

So, if, like Congress or somebody governmental like that, said, "Hey, you've spent $600 billion and stuff and like people are dying and stuff on a war that's been going on for like four years, and you still want to continue with this, so now we're going to set to deadlines and measurements and if you don't meet them were going to close shop" you'd be cool with that? Or am I just being unpatriotic?

draft day

Last Saturday was the open tryout and draft for Detroit Men's Senior League Baseball. I was a mid-first round draft choice. Well, actually, we were all first round draft choices, but I was 7 out of 13 and I'll take that gladly. I was selected by the A's. The team has a number of guys I played with three years ago, the Royals, so I guess I had an in.

So far, I ache like hell, and we don't play a game for at least a month. I twisted my right ankle shagging flies at the tryout and my back is killing me from the batting cage. But the worst of it is my throwing. I don't really expect to hit much, or to be a defensive wiz, but I'm having real difficulty just tossing around the pill. I've taken time away from the game before, but have never struggled with this. It's pretty disappointing.

not my secret, yet it is

a postcard from postsecret.com

However, my cat somehow survives unhurt.

over. and out.

Republicans are up in arms because Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) says the war is lost. Can't anybody get this straight? Yes, Reid is wrong, but so are Republicans. So, for the record, here's the answer:

We won the war four years ago. It's the nation-building we lost.

War is the exertion of political will of one government upon another. U.S. Armed Forces performed with skill, precision and heroism. Credit where credit is due: Rummy and company won the war in 2003.

It was President's high-minded optimism — and total disregard for history — that got us into this mess. Consider what a democratically-based Iraqi government needs to overcome: Sunnis and Shiites have been at each other since nearly the very beginning of Islam; citizens with no practical understanding of open and free government; almost no independent institutions binding the country; meddlesome neighbors — Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Al Qayda — looking to expand influence; those Kurds waiting to raise their own flag.

Granted, creating a more stable and secure Iraq would have helped matters at the outset of occupation, but can we truly expect the U.S. Army to mediate all that even under the best of circumstances?

If stability is victory in Iraq, we could have it relatively swiftly — we find another Saddam, equip and fund him, then look the other way. Not that I'm advocating that. A thug, even if he's our thug, is still a thug. What we need to do is accept the fact that Iraq is going to be a mess for a long, long time and that it will be up to Iraqis to figure it out from here.

Sorry, Secretary Powell, but the Pottery Barn rule is dead. We broke, but someone else is going to pay for it.

another guilty pleasure brought to the web

I never judge a book by its cover, but I admit to judging people by the books they read. (Pick a lady up on a first date and I always make an excuse to see the bookshelf (and if there ain't one, dinner is dutch cuz I'm going home early)). Library Thing brings title snooping to a new level. Create a profile and build your own virtual bookshelf. Write reviews. Meet people who've read a lot of the same books you have. Request a suggestion for a book you may like. Or, more fun, a suggestion for a book you'll hate.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I read the Da Vinci Code. It's not like I was going to go out with you, anyway.

january links

I haven't been posting, but I have been surfing. Here's a list of what I've found interesting in the last few months.

• Through Kiva, you can make small business loans in third world countries. Pick your country, pick your entrepreneur — very cool. You can then follow their progress through web updates. All interest made on your loan is use to fund Kiva's operations; however you do get your principle back (to loan again, one would hope).

• Zefrank has been at it four or five days a week for nine months now, and I don't know how he does it. The Show withZefrank is funny, political and somewhat daft. If you have an
eight-hour shift to kill, you can even catch up on all the past episodes. It's also available as a podcast.

• Lifehacker has a ton of cool "hacks" for daily living. DIY projects. Software tricks. Links to cool sites.

• Here's one I found through Lifehacker: Open Culture. Sounds like they have a lot of lectures, interviews and stories available or linked to. Here's a big fat for instance: 10 Excellent University Podcasts.

• Gizmodo recaps new technology and products. Sometimes boring.