Bemoaning Da Vinci

For a best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence, the movie corresponded well. Not only was it a terrific bore until Ian McKellan showed up doing his usual quirky scene-stealing thang, but all I could do to keep myself from leaving the theater before that was muse over the question: What’s up with Tom Hanks’s hair?

I know you'll see it anyway, just don't blame me afterwards.

Guilt, a driving force

The single greatest obstacle to American literature today: guilt. Guilt leads to the idea that all writing is self-indulgence. Writers feel guilty for not doing real work, that mysterious activity--where is it?

Writing does not consist of overcoming human weakness and bad habits. Writing well does not mean omitting needless words.

"Dear young writers...write long novels, pointless novels. Do not be ashamed to grieve about personal things...write with dignity, not in guilt. How you write is how you will be read."

-Elif Batuman

Tao Lin says "clown pants"

According to my friend, Tao Lin, Ben Kunkel wears hippie clown pants to public speaking events that pretty obviously outline the size of his manhood. But aside from that, his novel Indecision was pretty fantastically good. And Tao Lin is also a great writer though overly critical of writers more successful or accomplished than he is.

Just how old is Diane Rehm?

It has been brought to my attention that Diane Rehm is old. I leave NPR on all night, so when I wake up in the morning, aside from the voice of Terry Gross, Rehm's is the other one I hear, and frankly, its beginning to frighten me. I had to find out her story.

In 1973 when she first started at NPR she was 37, so it being 33 years later, that makes her 70.
(spadink!)

Just for a briefing on her life, in 1998, her career nearly came to a halt because of a mysterious speech problem. She took a leave of absence from her show (The Diane Rehm show, for the oblivious) and saw a series of specialists before she was diagnosed and treated for spasmodic dysphonia,a neurological disorder. Not one to be defeated, she returned to the show and made a point of bringing attention to the condition. In 2000, she interviewed President Bill Clinton and became the first radio talk show host to interview a sitting President in the Oval Office.

RESPECT.