Why Won’t a Publishing Book Work?
Recently, the New York Observer wondered if there is any glamour left in publishing. The article generated a healthy amount of discussion amongst the book blogs and I didn’t initially think I had anything else to offer on the subject. But some of the ideas expressed in this article have really been festering away for…
continue readingFunny Line
In a piece about Wallace Stegner’s birthday, Timothy Egan recalls a hilarious interaction between an irritated author and an editor. Here’s the bit: Norman Maclean, the Montana native whose gin-clear prose makes “A River Runs Through It” an American treasure, certainly carried some of the Stegnarian chip on his western shoulder. After the success of…
continue readingElect Him or Sign Him to a Pro Sports Team
In a move worthy of our country’s best politicians and crisis-management-trained professional athletes, Herman Rosenblat has managed to both apologize and deny fault at the same time. Reuters says Rosenblat apologizes while the Associated Press says he’s not sorry. Meanwhile, since in spite of the men in white coats trying to correct me, I still…
continue readingWhat We Can Learn from a Commercial for Cleats
My old man was a pretty serious high school football player in south Georgia. Ohio, Texas, and Florida are now hotbeds of high school football player. But back in those days, small rural Georgia towns were as serious about ball as anyone. Naturally, I figured I would follow in my father’s footsteps. But I was…
continue readingWhat Part of “Against the Law” Do You Not Understand?
With New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez’s admission to taking performance enhancing drugs, the whole issue of steroids in baseball has entered mainstream discourse again this week. I’m not much of a baseball fan, and frankly, I’m tired of the whole affair. However, there’s one part of the steroid discussion that drives me absolutely crazy. Athletes,…
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