Memnison Journal

The family has taken up a new and very nice practice; having family reading times – not scheduled as such, but so everyone has something good to read and is in the living room together reading.  It works pretty well, I think, and is an improvement over endless oh-I-can’t-watch-that debates about TV stuff. Tastes run [...]

I was watching an old TWILIGHT ZONE episode tonight about a boxer on his way down who charms a little boy, who enthusiastically uses his ‘big wish’ power that he goes on about during the earlier part of the show to change the result of the fight; instead of the boxer getting flattened and dropped [...]

…said Abraham Lincoln. Amidst the tons of Sidewise reading and whatnot, I’m also reading Paul Riddell’s Greasing the Pan. Since it’s all basically essays and all of the material is reprints from deceased magazines and the like, it’s not like you HAVE to read it all in one sitting.  It would make good bathroom reading [...]

If the Seattle Press-Intelligencier survives the next month, it will be as a online paper only.   Meanwhile, the Rocky Mountain News of Denver is about to cease publishing. The new US government budget (PDF link) under Obama is going to cap federal employee raises (the automatic kind) to 2% next year; the base this last [...]

The magazine / publishing industry is badly hurt. New web site: Magazine Death Pool, listing Magazines That Have Gone Under.  Electronic Gaming Monthly, Country Home, Plenty, Wondertime and so on.  Their lede is that magazines are becoming a luxury if the Internet / Web is available. Mad Magazine is going monthly -> quarterly. Diamond Distributing [...]

Rorschach from THE WATCHMEN at Eustace Tilley; my favorite, but I’m a huge WATCHMEN fan.

Every year, The New Yorker has a ‘Eustace Tilley’ cover; this year, they have a contest for Tilley ‘fan’ art contributions that might make it on the cover. Here’s a set: the Worried Uncle Sam,  the Spare Change,  and the Hope.

One of the finalists: As she watched the small form swing backwards and forth from the crystal chandelier – hands on hips, sniffing the air and squeaking inaudibly – it suddenly became clear to Madame de Pompomme that she had done the wrong thing asking Jacques to find and bring back her long-lost sister: for, [...]

No, dammit, I’m not talking about your binges at Amazon.com.   I’m talking about those areas where Unless You Pay, You Can’t Get In.  I will, for the sake of argument, allow inclusion of the places you pay to download all of your MP3 crack and the like, but only for the stuff that is digital [...]

Of course, it was the year I was born and they put out the ’57 Chevy, so that should be a start….from US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, and really worth a serious look-through.

Charlie Stross on the process of taking a book through publication.  Just fascinating for those of us wanna-bes that are eternally curious.