the tweney review

Bound to Please, by Michael Dirda

What can I say? I haven’t felt this transformed by a collection of essays since I read Jeffrey Steingarten’s first book, The Man Who Ate Everything. Like Steingarten, Dirda has an infectious enthusiasm for his topic (for Dirda it’s literature, instead of food); an impressive, seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of his subject; and the ability to write naturally, easily, and even humorously. This is not just a bunch of book reviews, it’s a friendly, eclectic, and well-informed tour through a whole world of literature. Above all, the reviews are advertisements for the pleasure of reading, and virtually every one had me adding at least one more title to my reading list. I’m now looking forward to discovering Herodotus (blame my classics-impaired education for that oversight), Baudelaire, Flaubert, Ronald Firbank, Avram Davidson, Randall Jarrell’s essays, and a couple dozen more. God knows when I’ll have the time for all this, but I’m looking forward to them nevertheless.

Dirda wields a tremendous amount of erudition with a light touch, and the result is readable, entertaining, and inspiring. ***** (five stars)

Gore to Congress: “Uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution. Stop going along to get along.“

If all agriculture is wiped out, all we have to do is make our way to Spitsbergen, Norway, and pick up some seeds: New Scientist News - Doomsday vault to avert world famine

Now are you afraid of birds? Researcher: Early Man Was Hunted by Birds - Yahoo! News

“Stardust,” NASA’s comet dust-collecting satellite, will return to Earth Jan. 15. Its flight path will take it over northern CA and NV, but should be visible almost as far south as Las Vegas and as far north as Portland (though it will be pretty low in the sky at the northern and southern extremes). This page has a map that shows what elevation it will appear at from various locations:

HYPERSEED: Hypervelocity reentries and deposition of organics in large meteors

Scientists estimate that the fireball will be 60 times brighter than Venus. That’s a sight worth waking up for.

More info on Stardust.

UPDATE 1/13: The NYT reports that Stardust has traveled 3 billion miles at a cost of about $200 million. That’s about 7 cents per mile — or a little bit less than what my Mazda MPV costs to drive (11 cents per mile, with gas at $2.35 per gallon). Clearly, I need some NASA rocket technology in my car!

Today after preschool a mom I haven’t seen before is putting her son into her car. She greets Clara effusively as we walk by on the sidewalk: “Oh, hello, sweetheart! I had so much fun talking with your grandma last week!”

I look quizzically at the woman. “Actually,” I say, “Clara’s grandma hasn’t been at preschool for several months.”

I know exactly what’s going on, but this woman doesn’t, yet.

She looks surprised. “But … umm … ” she says, and stops. She’s finally starting to realize that she’s confused Clara with another black girl at the preschool, and now she’s getting embarrassed.

A couple of years ago I might have stepped in and saved her from herself. “Oh, you’ve probably mistaken her for Hana,” I would have said. “It happens.” But this time I don’t. For one thing, Hana looks nothing like Clara. Different hair, different skin color, wildly different facial features and eyes. Hana is Ethiopian, Clara African-American. The only thing Clara and Hana have in common is that their parents are white. I figure if this woman is embarrassed, well, she brought it on herself. Maybe she’ll learn to pay better attention next time.

But I’m not cruel. After letting her squirm for a few moments I introduce us. Clara shows an interest in her car (a Toyota Corolla) so the mom lets Clara investigate, and starts asking her questions, and we’re back on normal parent-kid ground finally.

“Your car smells kind of funny,” Clara says. “It smells like Greta’s car. Like old bananas.”

Funny! Wired News: Game Year in Review: 2010

Clara wanted to read her new book Clara and Asha before bedtime. As I’m bringing it over to the bed, she says, “Next time when I’m a baby, I don’t want you to name me Clara. I don’t like that name any more. I want you to name me something else.”

Me: “Oh yeah? What do you think we should name you?”

“Mara.”

“But there’s already a Mara. Don’t you think we’d get confused if there were two Maras?”

“How about Zachary?”

“That’s interesting.”

Clara (looking at her giraffe slippers): “OK. Giraffe. Because I like giraffes.”

“You want me to call you Giraffe from now on?”

“Yes. And I think there should be a remote control, to make you go from a kid to a baby to a grownup. Bbbbreeeeep! [she makes a remote control sound effect, while crouching down onto the floor] I’m a baby! Bbbbreeeeep! Look, am I big now?”

After that, we read “Clara and Asha” without incident. She loves the book. And who wouldn’t love a book whose main character (with one’s erstwhile name) has a friend who is a giant, silver fish who floats through the air?

Hypothesis: Over time, BoingBoing and The New York Times will gradually converge in style and coverage, until they are nearly indistinguishable.

I’m not as crazy as you may think. For this to happen, the Times would have to start acting more blog-like. Many newspapers and magazines are already doing this; it’s only a matter of time before truly staid and respectable papers do, too. RSS feeds are just the tip of the iceberg.

And, BoingBoing would have to start acting more respectable. One or two libel suits would be all it would take to make a blog sit up and start acting a whole lot more circumspect in reporting the facts. That, plus enough advertising income to allow them to start hiring reporters and reporting original stories. Hell, they’ve already got beats — Cory, for DRM and geek toys; Xeni, for sex topics; David, for science and R&D; Mark, for obscure artists and cartoonists.

Granted, BoingBoing might not be the best example — it may be that Kos is more likely to turn into a newspaper, while newspapers turn into blogs. Whether there’s any money in it is another question altogether.

Best coverage of a trade show keynote I’ve ever seen. Google Keynote with Robin Williams - Engadget