{"id":4669,"date":"2009-11-20T05:20:47","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T10:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4669"},"modified":"2009-11-20T05:39:46","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T10:39:46","slug":"unrequired-reading-nov-20-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-20-2009","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 20, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who expected it? Another Friday dose of Unrequired Reading! Just click “more”!<\/p>\n

EIGHT GLASSES OF WINE A DAY?!<\/a><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Best<\/em> new NYC buildings of the decade<\/a>? And you included the Hearst monstrosity? Sigh . . .<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

WSJ interview with Russian literature transators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky<\/a>! I’m so easy to please.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The economics of pinball<\/a>! I’m so easy to please. (For the record, I think there were<\/em> some minor innovations post-1992, but The Addams Family<\/a> truly was the most mind-blowing pinball machine ever made.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Not a good decade<\/a> for some.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I used to bury my little green army men in the sand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I also used to drive down 14th St. almost every Sunday when I was bringing Amy back to her apartment. This post does not make me nostalgic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Einstein: splitting atoms and splitting Jews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Eat the Light! Thomas Kinkade Cannibalized<\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

If he didn’t make sissified music with Jeff Lynne for a few years, I’d put Tom Petty higher in the rock-‘n’-roll pantheon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Last week, I linked to this awesome Yankees billboard<\/a>, so it’s only fair that I post the, um, alternate one this week:<\/p>\n

\"bsux.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who expected it? Another Friday dose of Unrequired Reading! Just click “more”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[34,25,22,632,46,4,32,19],"tags":[904,616,272,752,905,273],"class_list":["post-4669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-gin","category-architecture","category-art","category-baseball","category-design","category-literature","category-sports","category-urban-issues","tag-einstein","tag-herodotus","tag-pevear","tag-thomas-kinkade","tag-tom-petty","tag-volokhonsky"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1dj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4728,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-11-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":0},"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":2293,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/catch-a-fire","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":1},"title":"Catch a fire","author":"Gil","date":"August 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't agree with all of this guy's points about the future of digital books vis a vis the success of the Kindle. I'm optimistic that the presence of the Kindle and other e-readers will help drag book publishing out of the horrifically dysfunctional returnable bookstore model that it's currently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001CBMX7Y","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1694,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/yucky-promotions","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":2},"title":"Yucky promotions","author":"Gil","date":"October 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I think Wal-Mart's \"Hot Release Tuesday\" may be the grossest name ever for a promotion, but today actually sees a couple of releases that I'm enthused about: War and Peace - A new Tolstoy translation by Pevear & Volokhonsky! This pair jump-started the wave of new translations of the Russians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307266931","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6731,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/this-is-all-going-according-to-plan","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":3},"title":"This is all going according to plan","author":"Gil","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just getting started on my annual Another Year, In the Books\u00a0post for 2012 (and it's a doozy), and I just came across this list I posted in January 2012 of books I was hoping to read in 2012. I actually did okay on that, given how often my reading\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":6250,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/books-ahead","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":4},"title":"Books ahead","author":"Gil","date":"January 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On Friday evening, Amy was over at a neighbor's, so I spent some time downstairs in the library, looking at my books and pulling ones that I hope to read in the year ahead. I'm going to list them here so I can check back in December and see how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743297334","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1602,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-27-2007","url_meta":{"origin":4669,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 27, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"July 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a fresh batch of links, dear readers! Enjoy! Tom Spurgeon keeps us up-to-date on happenings at Comic-Con International in San Diego! * * * Azar Gat gives a name to a model I've been trying to analyze\/wrap my brain around: authoritarian capitalism, as distinct from the democratic version. (Subscription\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\/4669","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=4669"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}