A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
Obligatory joke: I hope Burt Reynolds doesn’t crack up laughing while delivering his eulogy.
(Sorry about the headline; Cannonball Run was actually one of my least fave of his roles. I never knew that his character in Blazing Saddles — “Don’t be surprised, you’re doing the French Mistake! Voila!” — was named Buddy Bizarre. Which is now my screen name on MSN, replacing MANCHOVY!)
As someone whose focus of study in college was the evolution of the encyclopedic novel, I was fascinated by this brief article by Randall Stross on the birth and death of Encarta, Microsoft’s encyclopedia:
Gary Alt, who joined Microsoft in 1995 after working as an editor at World Book and at Encyclopedia Britannica, spoke with pride of the editorial work that he and his Encarta team had done. Fifty people — editors, fact-checkers and indexers — were on the team in 2000, at the peak of Microsoft’s editorial investment in Encarta, he said.
That investment, however, seems to have gone unnoticed by Encarta’s users. Tom Corddry, a senior manager at Microsoft from 1989 to 1996 who headed up its multimedia publishing unit, said, “The editors overestimated the way students would say, ‘This has been carefully edited! And is very authoritative!’â€
I liked the way Stross avoids the easy out of “encyclopedias are rendered worthless by Wikipedia” and instead focuses on Google’s indexing process as a meta-encyclopedia of human knowledge. One of my greatest advantages in this world is my ability to come up with the right combination of words to find information.
I’m not being facetious; there’s a skill to figuring out what words or phrases someone else would have written in a web-page or blog-post about a certain topic. I should put “Internet gumshoe” on my non-existent business cards.
(Bonus! I didn’t do much research on Diderot and the encyclopedia’s roots in the Enlightenment during my college project, largely because I knew almost nothing about the history of philosophy and knowledge. On the plus side, I’m now painfully aware of how ignorant I was, so that means I’m on the path to, um, something!)
It’s time for another round of my crazy-ass links! Just click “more”!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: May 1, 2009”
Remember that shooting-rampage at a town council meeting in Kirkwood, MO (residence of the official VM brother) last year? Todd Smith, a reporter covering the meeting for the Suburban Journals, took a bullet in the hand that night. Last week, the paper laid him off.
Budget cuts, y’know?
While I was in Vegas this week, I entertained the thought of giving up this blog, bailing on writing (but not my day job as an editor), and trying to find another pursuit/outlet.
Then two things happened. First, one of my best friends wrote out of the blue to tell me that my blog “keeps things interesting for me and expands my horizons.” Then, Roger Ebert wrote this post about his childhood home.
It doesn’t exactly work (although it has some beautiful evocations of what seems to be a very specifically American life), but its failure made me more forgiving of my own ineptitude. After all, if a lifetime reporter/critic/writer like Mr. Ebert struggles to make something like this work, then I shouldn’t feel so bad about my own shortcomings.
So you’re stuck with me, is what I’m saying. Thanks for reading.
I’m working my way through Plutarch’s Lives
Anyway, while reading the life of Numa Pompilius, the successor to Romulus as king of Rome, I came across this wonderful passage:
To the god Terminus, or Boundary, they offer to this day both public and private sacrifices, upon the borders and stone-marks of their land; living victims now, though anciently those sacrifices were solemnized without blood; for Numa reasoned that the god of boundaries, who watched over peace, and testified to fair dealing, should have no concern with blood.
It is very clear that it was this king who first prescribed bounds to the territory of Rome; for Romulus would but have openly betrayed how much he had encroached on his neighbors’ lands, had he ever set limits to his own; for boundaries are, indeed, a defense to those who choose to observe them, but are only a testimony against the dishonesty of those who break them.
What I’m reading: Finished Antony and Cleopatra
What I’m listening to: A mix I made called Dropsical Meatwave. Because I’m like that.
What I’m watching: Chocolate, which needed less buildup and more fight scenes. The mishap outtakes in the closing credits demonstrate that more fight scenes would have led to fatalities, so hey. I also re-watched the first three episodes of the first season of The Wire on my flight out to Vegas. What an amazing show.
What I’m drinking: Not much. I’m getting tired liver after a short spring training.
What Rufus is up to: Enjoying the warm weather, going to a greyhound meet & greet (with pix) on Saturday and taking his weekly hike up in Wawayanda State Park (no pix)!
Where I’m going: Las Vegas, baby.
What I’m happy about: I may get to hit In-N-Out Burger while I’m here! (I’m easy.) Also, I’m still pretty ecstatic that I took this pic. (Again, I’m easy.)
What I’m sad about: I had this terrible foreboding the moment I woke up on Sunday, the day of my flight out here. I haven’t had that sort of vibe in a long time. Of course, the flight turned out fine and I even drove in Vegas for the first time (it’s my 5th trip here, I think). Interestingly, they don’t seem to paint stripes on the highway or the major roads. This made the drive interesting. To my credit, I took my GPS unit along and let it guide me out to the hotel.
What I’m worried about: Mortality, evidently. And driving a low-slung Pontiac around Las Vegas.
What I’m pondering: Whether The Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” (the song from the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are) is this alt-generation’s “Do You Realize??” or their “November Rain.”
For all of you Easter-season Peeps-eaters out there, I give you Peeps Show III, the Washington Post’s annual Peeps diorama contest! Now go microwave one of those marshmallow monsters!
Longtime/obsessive readers of this blog know that I find The Burger King to be one of the most weirdly compelling ad-mascots of all time. So I’m quite happy to see him get down to Sir Mix-A-Lot (and SpongeBob) in this new ad.
What I’m reading: Franny and Zooey
What I’m listening to: Who Are You
What I’m watching: The final four and the premiere of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which was scheduled on HBO to take the slot of Eastbound & Down.
What I’m drinking: Plymouth, Q Tonic and lime.
What Rufus is up to: Taking a 5-mile-plus hike up in Wawayanda on Sunday. And spending Monday in my new office, where he can chill out during the forecast thunderstorm.
Where I’m going: Nowhere in particular, although I may be heading into the city Thursday to gather up a friend of mine (and his dog) to attend our seder.
What I’m happy about: Baseball season starts! Springtime is here! Oh, and that my pal Chip Delany was profiled on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.
What I’m sad about: That I’ve never tried Cel-Ray. I oughtta break my “gin, water & black coffee” New Year’s Resolution for that.
What I’m pondering: Whether Salinger has actually been writing all this time he’s been in seclusion. After reading all of his collected non-Catcher stuff in the last two weeks, and re-reading Ron Rosenbaum’s 1997 essay on his pilgrimage to Salinger’s driveway, I have a strong feeling that even if he is writing, he has no intention of publishing any of it. Guess I oughtta read that Hapworth 16, 1924 and see if that changes my mind.