Archive for December, 2006

On notes girls leave around for parents to find

I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s post about his daughter Maddy’s self-referential whiteboard (at right) and post-it notes. They remind me of the childhood journal entries Alison Bechdel reproduced in Fun Home, particularly the ones that were written more to win the approval of some indeterminate audience than for herself. In one of these, if memory serves, Bechdel complained about missing a . . .

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Michael Shelden observes that CNN’s footage of Thomas Pynchon is available on You Tube. I watched it and promptly felt like an asshole. (Discussion here.)

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Orhan Pamuk delivers his Nobel Lecture, “Babamin bavulu” (My Father’s Suitcase), in Stockholm today. (Via.)

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“Parodies that make us cringe today used to make people roar.” Meet the Irving Berlin of “Cohen Owes Me 97 Dollar.”

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Supreme Court: goodbye, Brown; welcome, lily white

My father and I don’t talk. Haven’t since the summer of 2001. (Except at my grandmother’s funeral last year, when I cut off his attempted embrace by shaking his hand.) But I don’t need to speak with him to know he’s celebrating this week, as Brown v. Board of Ed. heads for the chopping block. So insanely opposed to integration . . .

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