{"id":1223,"date":"2006-12-01T07:13:06","date_gmt":"2006-12-01T12:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-1-2006\/"},"modified":"2006-12-01T07:13:06","modified_gmt":"2006-12-01T12:13:06","slug":"unrequired-reading-dec-1-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-1-2006","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 1, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I moved this blog up to a new version of the WordPress platform, I can do some neat stuff, like putting the rest of this post inside that “more” section, so it doesn’t take up so much space.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The guys at Design Observer posted their holiday reading list<\/a>. It looks suspiciously long, like the time my buddy Tom lifted my “every book I’ve finished since 1989<\/a>” list and posted it on a forum as his summer reading list. We got some laughs outta that.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Ron Rosenbaum is more enthused about that new Pynchon book<\/a> than I am, but he seems to be enthused about the existence of Pynchon fans, rather than about the novel itself, which I’ll bet he won’t get around to reading for a while.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Todd Seavey at Reason wants to see some tradition infused in the new buildings at Ground Zero<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The sad truth is that the World Trade<\/span> Center, while ostensibly an icon of a hectic and diverse world of ever-changing commerce, was also a bland modernist structure\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dthough it certainly didn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t deserve its horrible fate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Despite being cutthroat competitors, Samsung and Sony have a joint venture to manufacture panels for LCD TVs. I’m always interested in the success of this sort of thing<\/a>, especially in a field where the margins have grown so thin.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Tesla<\/a> rocks! (okay, wrong Tesla, but still. . .)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Cricket will destroy the world.<\/a><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

It’s all mine<\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Go, orange! Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko writes about how things are going<\/a>, post-revolution.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And finally: what’s parallel parking<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I moved this blog up to a new version of the WordPress platform, I can do some neat stuff, like putting the rest of this post inside that “more” section, so it doesn’t take up so much space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,27,4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-big-business","category-literature","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-jJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4299,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/even-0-fers-get-the-blues","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":0},"title":"Even 0-fers Get the Blues","author":"Gil","date":"August 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of Sam Anderson's \"I never liked you\" review of the new Thomas Pynchon novel (a book I'm uninterested in reading), which is based in the wonderful world of 1970, this week's 0-fer is . . . Tom Robbins! I've never read a word of any of Robbins' novels,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "0-fer"","block_context":{"text":"0-fer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/0-fer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1594202249","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4728,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-11-2009","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 11, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a busy, hectic work-week, so bleary-eyed links await you, dear readers! Just click \"more\"! Good thing there's coffee! * * * Another Pevear & Volokhonsky interview! I'm so bizarrely easy to please! (I just wish more of their translations were available on the Kindle.) * * * I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5345,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-28-2010","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: May 28, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"May 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Memorial Day weekend, dear readers! Let's kick off the long weekend with some Unrequired Reading! Polari: one queer anti-language. * * * Threesus Christ! * * * Go read this Random Roles interview of Danny Trejo by Nathan Rabin! It's a blast! * * * The new Abstract City\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1030,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/pynched","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":3},"title":"Pynched","author":"Gil","date":"July 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a wee paranoiac, I heard that Vineland was soon to be released. At that point, I'd only read V., and Lot 49, but I'd made a stab at The Big One (it took 4 attempts before I finally made it through). I read the notice in Pynchon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/not-feeling-the-pynch","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":4},"title":"Not Feeling the Pynch","author":"Gil","date":"November 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm in between books right now. This condition never lasts long, but it's strange that it's happening just now. See, there's a new book out by an author who used to be my fave, but I'm not interested in reading it, and I'm not sure why that is. Last week,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1238,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-8-2006","url_meta":{"origin":1223,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 8, 2006","author":"Gil","date":"December 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the paucity of posts this week, dear readers. I've been pretty burned out from work. Plus, we spent last night picking up my wife's new Mini Cooper S, which has her pretty excited. Pix to follow this weekend. Your Unrequred Reading is carefully hidden away under that \"more\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}