Friday Thursday Link Roundup 1/1/09 – New Year Edition
Happy New Year from all of us here at TheNile! Here’s something very special.
• “The usual storyline runs something like this: someone comes to Baker Street with a problem. Holmes smiles knowingly, then assures the worried soul that all will be well. He excuses himself while refusing to tell Watson what he thinks or what he’s up to. That evening he returns, takes a quick snifter of cocaine, gravely informs Watson “it is as I feared”, arranges a rendezvous for midnight … and urges Watson to bring his revolver.” I hate to say it, but I too think that the Sherlock Holmes stories are a little bit… lame…
• Everyone knows that it’s an American’s constitutional right to freely engage in the ‘pursuit of happiness’. But doesn’t that imply that true happiness is an unattainable goal? Well, at least the NYT seems to agree with me…
• Newspapers are on the way out… but will anyone actually miss them?
• Senor Spielbergo to direct children’s book turned play turned movie. Nice!
• Ursula K. LeGuinn, the Authors Guild and Google are currently embroiled in a three way slinging match concerning the sanctity of copyright. You want tickets to this fight.
• In case you recently came of out a year-long coma, The Guardian has posted a nice little (?) summary of the many and varied happenings in the global literary fraternity in 2009. Enjoy.
• “Horner recently wrote a book entitled How to Build A Dinosaur in which he refers to the embryo experiment as part of a quest to create a ‘chickenosaurus.’” Yes, please.
• A stunning (and in many ways, very touching) reassessment of The Merchant of Venice.
• These holidays, pay a visit to Abe’s Weird Book Room. Including gems like: Blessed are the Cheesemakers, The Who’s Who of British Beheadings, Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoonboxes of Daghestan, The How and Why Wonder Book of Guns and Was Karl Marx a Satanist?