Archive Category: Book & Lit
How to Use An Apostrophe
Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has just released another web project, How to Use An Apostrophe. It’s a hoot! (Notice the proper use of apostrophe in the preceding sentence).
Link (for extra goodness, see the source code) – Thanks Matthew!
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share:  email
this 
|
| Neatorama Shop » By Artist » Mike Jacobsen T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| Wizard of Oz, the Short Version | See more T-Shirts
by Mike Jacobsen » 
|
13 Examples of Literature in Song
It’s no real surprise that Wikipedia has a thorough list of these, but it’s interesting to parse through the many, and find a neat collection of songs and albums that were based on, or influenced by books. Led Zeppelin has a scatological lyric library referencing JRR Tolkien, but let’s see what else is out there.
13. Alan Parson’s Project – The album is called Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and includes interpretations of Edgar Allen Poe’s best, like “The Raven”, “Dr. Tar and Professor Feather”, and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Here’s the awesome “Dream Within A Dream” video. Also by Parsons: “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov).
12. Rivendell (Rush) – A quiet, thematic representation of the Elf version of a Bed & Breakfast. (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, of course.)
11. 2112 (Rush) - Side one* is loosely based on Anthem by Ayn Rand.
10. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica) - Based on the classic by Ernest Hemingway.
9. The Thing That Should Not Be and The Call of Cthulu (Metallica) - These guys really let good classic fiction influence their songwriting. We get not one, but two songs in honor of H.P. Lovecraft’s best character. Also by Metallica: “One”, based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
8. The Small Print (Muse) - “clearly alluding to Goethe’s Faust, being sung from the point of view of the Devil to someone selling their soul to him in exchange for, presumably, musical prowess and fame…” source
7. Anthrax Loves Stephen King - As do a lot of bands like Pennywise (It). But Anthrax named one of their best albums Among the Living after King’s character Randall Flagg in The Stand. They also penned a song called “Skeleton in the Closet” based on King’s “Apt Pupil”.
6. Tom Sawyer (Rush) - Wow, Rush. Even “Red Barchetta” is based on a vague book called A Nice Morning Drive by Richard S. Foster. At least Tom Sawyer is pretty well known both as a song and a book. Who can resist the urge to sing along when Geddy Lee croons, “The River!”
5. Tales of Brave Ulysses (Cream) - Psychedelically sums up all you need to know about all the ins and outs of Homer’s The Odyssey. And I quote, “Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers…” (This was actually a lyric inspired by lyricist Martin Sharp’s travels in Ibiza.) But the Sirens are there, so that’s cool.
4. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen) - Based on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Henry Fonda and Bruce Springsteen would have had some cool conversations, I bet.
3. White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) -Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Here’s a nice rendition of that song.
2. Animals (Pink Floyd) - It never actually occurred to me before, but an argument can be made that the Animals album, with it’s corrupt pigs (be they on the wing, or three different ones), dogs and sheep, political overtones… Yeah, it’s definitely based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
1. Iron Maiden (Pretty much every song of theirs, ever) - At least a heavy handful. These Brit bad boys of metal must have had some scratched up library cards. Their adaptations include:
- Seventh Son, by Orson Scott Card (on the 7th Son of a 7th Son album, including all songs)
- Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
- Flight of Icarus (Mythology)
- The Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Alan Sillitoe)
- Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlen)
- To Tame a Land (Dune, Frank Herbert)
- The Trooper (The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Tennyson)
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
- Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allen Poe)
On second thought, an honorable mention should be made for Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore”, as it pretty much describes the Battle of Pellennor Fields in The Return of the King.
(Iron Maiden illustration by Ado Cedric & Tio Julio.)
*For help with determining what this means, ask a grownup.
|
Comment (43)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
A "Holzbibliothek" is a "wooden library." A library of wooden books. Literally.
In the late 18th century, Carl Schildbach was manager of a German estate famous for its ornamental park. He had no formal academic or scientific training, but at the request of his employer began compiling a reference collection of the natural history of each type of tree and shrub in the estate, eventually totalling 546 items…
“The format… was that of a box or casket, the raw materials for which were provided by the specimen itself, made up in the form of a book – varying in size from folio to duodecimo – with the ‘front cover’ forming a sliding lid…
For the left side of the ‘volume’ mature wood was selected and for the right side sapwood, while the fore-edge was made from heartwood; the top surface incorporated cross-sections from branches of various ages while the bottom surface showed a section through the trunk…
While the box itself served to illustrate the characteristics of the timber, the interior was reserved for an exposition of the whole natural history of the plant… a complete seedling is included to one side, with its roots, seminal capsule and first pair of leaves. In the centre of the box the tip of a branch displays buds and leaves in various stages of development…blossoms are shown varying from full blooms to faded flowers, while fruits are similarly represented at every stage in their development… Examples of associated parasites and lichens are included…”
The empress Catherine tried to purchase Schildbach’s collection, but he deeded it to his master, Landgrave Wilhelm IX; it now resides in the Naturalienkabinett in Kassel, where it is still used as reference material. Schildbach inspired several imitators, including Candid Huber, a Benedictine monk, whose collection survives in the Bavarian Burgmuseum. Peter the Great eventually acquired a collection for his Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, and another resides in the Musee National des Techniques of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris.
The cited text above is excerpted from Chapter IV (“Museums and the Natural World”) in Curiosity and Enlightenment: Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, by Arthur MacGregor (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 2007) – a comprehensive history of cabinets of curiosities, museums, and specialized collections.
Small-format photos of Schildbach’s collection are available at the webpage of the Naturkundemuseum in the Ottoneum at Kassel. The embedded photo is from a similar Holzbuch in a collection at the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe. Other examples may be seen here and here. The creation of such “wooden books” seems to have been primarily a European endeavor; a related project by Romeyn B. Hough collecting North American woods in book form (using thin sections of wood attached to cardboard within a conventional book binding) was produced at the turn of the last century.
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Fun With Flies in Frankfurt
How do you liven up the Frankfurt Book Fair, and simultaneously get your company’s name out there? Publisher Eichborn (with a fly as its logo) released 200 flies with lightweight banners, attached with wax. No flies were harmed, and the result was spontaneous smiles and laughter.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Fantasy Bookplates
Will at A Journey Around My Skull asked readers to create bookplates in the style of the early-20th century magazine Der Orchideengarten (previously at Netaorama) for a contest. They were to include orchids and other flowers, corpses, giant insects, monsters, or diseases. The entries are quite interesting! Memphis artist Michelle Duckworth was the overall winner. Pictured is the bookplate by Ellis Nadler. Link
|
Comment (0)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » I Love Science T-Shirts | |
 |
|
| I Love Biology | See more I
Love Science T-Shirts »
|
Hitler's Personal Library
This past January, Timothy Ryback wrote in The Times about the books that Adolf Hitler kept in his private library. 1,200 books that he retained at his residences in southern Germany are now warehoused by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Ryback suggests that one might gain insights into the mind of a man by the books that he collects. Among Hitler’s favorites:
He ranked Don Quixote, along with Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Gulliver’s Travels, among the great works of world literature. “Each of them is a grandiose idea unto itself,” he said. In Robinson Crusoe he perceived “the development of the entire history of mankind”. Don Quixote captured “ingeniously” the end of an era. He was especially impressed by Gustave Doré’s depictions of Cervantes’s delusion-plagued hero.
He also owned the collected works of William Shakespeare, published in German translation in 1925 by Georg Müller as part of a series intended to make great literature available to the general public. Volume six includes As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida. The entire set is bound in hand-tooled Moroccan leather, with a gold-embossed eagle, flanked by his initials, on the spine.
Hitler considered Shakespeare superior to Goethe and Schiller. While Shakespeare had fuelled his imagination on the protean forces of the emerging British empire, these two Teutonic playwright-poets squandered their talent on stories of midlife crises and sibling rivalries. Why was it, he wondered, the German Enlightenment produced Nathan the Wise, the story of the rabbi who reconciles Christians, Muslims and Jews, while it had been left to Shakespeare to give the world The Merchant of Venice and Shylock?
Link | Image: Calvin College
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Your Neatorama Guide To The Hitchhiker's Guide
Technically, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy should probably be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, as the book most certainly explores multiple galaxies, regardless of semantics though, the story is undoubtedly a worldwide phenomenon. As a book, it has been translated into 30 languages and was voted the fourth most loved book in all of Britain.
In honor of the book’s 30th anniversary, which took place earlier this month, Neatorama is presenting you a collection of facts related to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Whether you’ve read the book, heard the radio broadcasts, seen the movie or seen the TV show, there’s certainly something here you don’t know yet.
What’s In A Name?
Fans often abbreviate The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy as HHGTTG, but Adams uses the abbreviation of H2G2, which is also used on the official BBC online guide. Other nicknames can include “The Hitchhiker’s Guide,” “The Guide” or “Hitchhiker’s.” To make matters more confusing, when people use the full name, they are sometimes referring to the series and sometimes referring to the fictional book the series was named after. Just to ensure you’re entirely confused I plan to use all of the names in this article.
Image Via Nicholas “Lord Gordon” [Flickr]
It’s As Multimedia As You Can Get
Fans of the series might know that the Guide started as a radio series (which technically makes H2G2 31 years old, since the first broadcast was 1978), which quickly spawned a series of 5 books, a TV show and a movie, but you may not know there were also a number of stage shows, a comic book adaptation and a computer game based on Hitchhiker’s. There was even a series of towels released with towel part of the first novel, which some fans consider to be the “official version” of the book (if you aren’t familiar with the works, then you may not know how important towels can be).
In other works, these adaptations would end up being watered-down, mediocre versions of the original that don’t reflect the artist’s actual vision. Fortunately, most of the adaptations involved with the HHGTTG were done by Douglas Adams himself.
Time To Celebrate
The H2G2 has even spawned its own holiday. May 25 in Towel Day. Towels are, after all, one of the most important things an interstellar traveler can have with them at any time. If you’re wondering how to celebrate Towel Day – why, just bring a towel with you all day, of course! There are even two sites dedicated to Towel Day, the countdown site, IsItTowelDay.com, and the informational site, TowelDay.org. Here at Neatorama, we’ve even covered towel day twice before.
Image Via JenT [Flickr]
In The Beginning, There Was Destruction
As mentioned above, the first incarnations of the Guide were in radio form. The first series actually was originally going to be called “The Ends of the Earth,” which was to be a six-part radio series. In each of the episodes, the story would end when the world ended – each time in a different way.
When Adams started writing the first episode, he realized he needed an alien there to provide context and the alien needed a reason to be on Earth. In coming up with this reason, he finally decided to have the alien be a researcher for a “wholly remarkable book,” which would be known as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Eventually, the story ended up focusing on the book, which started up the whole crazy phenomenon.
Later on, Adams claimed that he had already came up with the idea of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” while hitchhiking through Europe in his youth.
Image Via Adam Foster Codefor [Flickr]
Sounds Good To Me
The series is notable for being the first BBC radio program to be produced in stereo and later in Dolby surround sound. Adams claimed he wanted the program’s production to be comparable to that of a rock album, and as a result, a lot of the program’s budget went towards sound effects.
Speaking of rock music, the tune used on the radio, television, LP and film versions was “Journey of the Sorcerer,” an instrumental Eagles’ song from the album One of These Nights.
The World’s Most Inaccurate Trilogy Series
The novels were originally released as a trilogy, but then Adams came out with So Long, And Thanks for All The Fish, making the books “a trilogy in four parts.” Then he released Mostly Harmless and the series became “a trilogy in five parts,” the cover of which advertised itself as “The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Trilogy.” The blurb on the book went on to say, “the book that gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘trilogy.’”
At this point, fans continued to be hopeful that the series would eventually become “a trilogy in six parts,” but Adams died of a heart attack in 2001 before a sixth book was finished. Before he passed though, he had hinted that the newest novel he was working on, The Salmon of Doubt, may have been this sixth book. He said in an interview that Mostly Harmless was “very bleak” and that he would love to finish the “trilogy” on a “slightly more upbeat note.”
Image Via Jenbooks [Flickr]
Inspired Inspirations
It’s only natural that any phenomenon as big as the Guide would have inspired some other works – of course, these works are particularly off-the-wall, just like the work that inspired them. Monty Python member Terry Jones actually wrote a novel, Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic, based on Adam’s computer game, “Starship Titanic,” which was based on an idea in Life, the Universe and Everything.
In 2005, Michael Hanlon published The Science of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy, which covered important topics such as the Babel fish, parallel universes and space tourism.
Remember Your Memorabilia
There was tons of merchandise made for Hitchhiker’s over the years. Some of the favorite memorabilia items, as mentioned above, were towels with the Guide’s entry for towels. Then there were the singles released by Stephen Moore sung in the character of Marvin, the Paranoid Android, “Marvin,” Metal Man,” Reasons To Be Miserable,” and “Marvin I Love You.” My favorite though, was the “Beeblebear,” a teddy bear with an extra arm and head like Zaphod Beeblebox.
Image Via ZoeARP [Flickr]
|
Comment (15)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
PostSecret Interview Follow-Up: Winners of the PostSecret Book
A
couple of weeks ago, we posted an interview
with Frank Warren of PostSecret,
where we asked Neatoramanauts to submit their own questions.
Here are the four questions and a comment that were picked - these people will get a free autographed copy of the PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God:
1. Reflecting upon all the Post Secrets you’ve received, and the contents therein, what would you say is the underlying – yet unifying – character(istic) of humankind? (Asked by Sanyu)
Frank : All the secrets I have seen, almost half-a-million, have revealed a hidden landscape that we all recognize but don' talk about. They have made me aware of our rich inner lives and the stories of heroism, human frailty and humor happening in people's lives. Those stories and secrets allow me to feel more empathy toward others and greater self-acceptance. They make me feel more connected to strangers. They make riding the subway more interesting.
2. How do you tell a fake secret submission from a genuine one? Or does it matter to you if they’re genuine confessions from the person who sent them or not if they might resonate with someone who might read them? (Asked by Melissa)
Frank: I think of the postcards as works of art that may have several layers of truth. Perhaps the secret we think is true becomes false when we share it. Maybe the secret you "make-up" actually reveals a kernel of truth that you are hiding from yourself.
3. What is the most commonly sent ’secret’ to Postsecret? (Asked by Mowog)
Frank: The most common secret I get is, "I pee in the shower". The most common kind of secret I get are the ones describing that condition I think we all can relate to; our search for that one person who we can tell all our secrets to. The journey toward greater intimacy with others and understanding of ourselves.
4. Have you ever received a secret you didn’t think you should publish? (Asked by Jenny)
Frank: A year ago I received a call from the FBI about a secret. It was about a secret I did not publish. Maybe someday I can post it.
5. Comment that won the book:
Oh my goodness… The last postcard up here “Rationally, I think the idea of God makes no sense, but I cannot get rid of my faith no matter how hard I try” has tears streaming down my face. I have been reading PostSecret for the last 3 or so years and this hasn’t happened yet. Funny that it’s on Neatorama and not PostSecret though, but i digress.
I have felt this way my whole life and it has caused a huge number of conflicts for my spiritual self. I have such a hard time praying and praying after telling people I’m an atheist or that I don’t believe in God, but I still always say stuff like that. I’m so happy there is someone else who is having the same conflict. (Comment by Paula R)
Congratulations to everyone who won the book (you'll get an email from me soon)! My apologies to those whose questions didn't get picked - they're all great questions, but time limitations did not permit every single one of them to be answered. Thank you to Frank and all you Neatoramanauts who participated ;)
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Real-life Harry Potter Not Happy with Fame
Harry Potter of Portsmouth, England was born in 1989 and had eight years of peace before J.K. Rowling wrote the books that would make him miserable.
He said: ‘No one ever believes that I’m telling the truth about my name. I had to show my girlfriend my passport, my bank card, and my driving licence to convince her that I wasn’t lying.
‘Even getting my season ticket for Portsmouth FC was a bit of a pain – I’m a massive football fan, but I had problems at the ticket office.
‘First they didn’t believe that my name was genuine, and when I convinced them, they thought it was hilarious. It’s never-ending.
‘I play a lot of football as well in a local league, and the match reports are always full of puns – ‘Harry Potter cast a spell on the opposition and that kind of thing.’
The real Harry Potter also has a scar on his forehead like the book character, and is the same age as Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays Potter in the movies. Link -via Unique Daily
|
Comment (23)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
From Blogs to Books - A History of the Web in Print
Most people I encounter in my offline life do not surf the internet, and I think about all the rich content they are missing. The people I encounter on the internet work hard to spread interesting content, and are rarely rewarded for their efforts. But in the last few years, quite a few interesting ideas that broke on the web are now breaking through to “meatspace” through book publishing, which is where the real money is -for the lucky ones. This has led to blogs that are started for the express purpose of landing an eventual book deal. Urlesque has compiled a list of blogs that have turned into books, which may be useful in Christmas shopping for your relatives who would enjoy such things but won’t spend time online. Link -via the Presurfer
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Food & Drink » Offbeat Mints & Candies | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Offbeat
Mints & Candies » |
||
Post Secret: New Book Interview with Frank Warren
Forget the CIA, Frank Warren is probably the world's best keeper of secrets.
In 2004, Frank started a project called PostSecret, in which he printed 3,000 blank postcards inviting people to mail him their secrets anonymously. He handed out the postcards to strangers, left them between book pages in bookstores and libraries, and even left some on park benches. He got 100 back and posted the secrets on his blog.
Apparently, that struck a nerve: PostSecret went viral and since he started it, Frank has received nearly half a million postcards in his mailbox and over a quarter billion visitor to www.postsecret.com. The website spawned various exhibitions, events and PostSecret books, as well as various parodies (a true measure of one's popularity in today's world, I'm afraid).
The latest book, PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
Frank, a Neatoramanaut himself (that's him wearing one of our T-shirts),
has kindly agreed to sit down for a virtual interview with us. You are
invited to submit comments and questions for Frank - we'll pick 5 of the
best comments/questions to get a free autographed PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
Neatorama: Congratulations on the new book (it's fantastic, by the way, I was engrossed reading it for a couple of hours) - did you ever think that PostSecret would be as popular as it is today when you started it?
Frank Warren: No, I have been shocked. In addition to the five PostSecret books, the website has had over 250,000,000 hits.
I knew that if I could earn people's trust and build a collection of creative and authentic secrets it would be very special for me. It's great to know so many others appreciate these extraordinary confessions too.
Neatorama: Why do you think it has been so successful?
Frank: I think people find some of the funny and sexual postcards amusing but eventually you come across a secret that you might recognize as one of your own. One you might be hiding from yourself. I think it is those moments of epiphany and empathy that have allowed the PostSecret community to grow.
Neatorama: Your latest book focuses on life, death, and God. Can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind the topic?
Frank: PostSecret started as a lark, maybe even a prank, but over the years the secrets have become more meaningful to me. This new book, like all the books have never-before-seen secrets that touch on sexual taboos and some outlandish humor, but more than the other books, the new book has postcards that share some our deepest and most private feelings about the greatest mysteries of life. The parts that are always there beneath the surface but we sometimes forget about during our everyday lives.
Neatorama: What are some of your favorite PostSecret secrets?
Neatorama: It's been five years since you started PostSecret - how has it changed your life?
Frank: Knowing all these secret stories that are happening in so many of our lives makes life, people, and riding the subway more interesting.
Neatorama: What's next for you and PostSecret?
Frank: My favorite part of the project now is traveling to college campuses and sharing the stories behind the secrets at live events where audience members can share their own secrets - without anonymity, but sometimes with great emotion.
__________
Frank's message on YouTube
__________
From PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God:
Frank has kindly offered 5 free autographed copies of the book for a giveaway. Got any questions for Frank? 5 lucky commenters with the most interesting questions and/or comments will win a copy of the book (I'll post Frank's replies as an update).
Links: Post Secret Book official website (with bonus secrets) | Post Secret website | Post Secret Community | Post Secret Book on Amazon (affiliate link, here's the clean non-affiliate link if you'd like)
|
Comment (96)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at 30
Although the story was first composed as a radio script, the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published 30 years ago today. Fans in Britain are marking the occasion by wearing dressing gowns and carrying towels. Chris Irvine writes in The Daily Telegraph:
Hitchcon’09, the fans’ convention at the Royal Festival Hall contained a spacesuit worn by a Vogon, the galactic galaxy’s bureaucrats notorious for their aggressive manner and terrible poetry, as well as Adams’ bath, where the author, who died in 2001, claimed to have some of his best ideas.[...]
The Hitchhiker books began as a Radio 4 comedy show in 1978. Adams then adapted the radio series to create the initial book, completing four more instalments over the next 20 years. He died of a heart attack in 2001, which writing The Salmon of Doubt, published post humously.
Link via GeekDad | Image: Random House
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The 10 Greatest Books Adapted Into Movies
Here’s a list sure to spark debate. Which is better, the movie or the book? Usually one is much better than the other. With the ten books and movies listed here, it’s all a matter of opinion because both the book and the movie are classics. Still, I will always recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. Link [possible malware alert @ link - go there at your own risk]
|
Comment (23)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Edgar Allan Poe’s Funeral
Edgar Allan Poe died 160 years ago, but did not have a proper funeral, especially for such a respected author.
Poe’s cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly. Fewer than 10 people attended the hasty funeral for one of the 19th century’s greatest writers. And the injustices piled on. Poe’s tombstone was destroyed before it could be installed, when a train derailed and crashed into a stonecutter’s yard. Rufus Griswold, a Poe enemy, published a libelous obituary that damaged Poe’s reputation for decades.
But on Sunday, Poe’s funeral will get an elaborate do-over, with two services expected to draw about 350 people each _ the most a former church next to his grave can hold. Actors portraying Poe’s contemporaries and other long-dead writers and artists will pay their respects, reading eulogies adapted from their writings about Poe.
Instead of digging up and reburying Poe, a mockup was constructed and will lie instate for visitation and a wake before the funeral this weekend in Baltimore. Link -via Digg
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The World Needs More Pooh
That’s the opinion of the Trustees of Pooh Properties, which manages the estates of author A. A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard. They have authorized a new sequel in the Pooh series. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood has generated some controversy among Pooh purists, who argue that the original books were about growing up and moving on, and that if the creators had wanted sequels they would have generated them…
“The whole point is that the boy has to go away from his childhood, from this very idyllic pastoral world of his childhood,” she said. “This is an absolutely perfect ending, and doing anything beyond this is pointless.”
The trustees of the estate believe the sequel will be true to the original…
“The good professor and other great lovers of Pooh will have to form their own conclusions,” Brown said. “And they may say, ‘oh, it’s not quite as good, it’s not quite the same.’ I can’t help that. All I can say is we tried very hard to do something that’s not offensive, shall we say.”
Jennifer Quinn of the AP has more details at the StarTribune. The BBC has a writeup on a new character – Lottie the Otter – created for the sequel. And The Guardian makes note in passing of the possibility that Pooh may have had OCD.
Image credit: Wikipedia.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
An Interactive Map of Banned and Challenged Books
The last week in September is Banned Books Week. To mark the event, an interactive map has been created that shows requests for removal of books from public libraries and school libraries for the period 2007-2009. The map is created from cases reported to and documented by the American Library Association.
The image above is a screencap. The interactive map itself can be accessed at this link.
The ALA also has a listing of the top ten most frequently challenged books for 2008.
|
Comment (14)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
BookFail: A Gallery of Bizarre Books
Image: Book Fail
Inspired by the now famous FAIL Blog, BookFail is a gallery of book covers of strange, absurd, and improbable books. It’s somewhat similar to the Judge a Book by its Cover blog, except that you can submit your own suggestions. Above is the The Zen of Farting by Reepah Gud Wan.
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
William Safire, R.I.P.
Speechwriter,
author and famous New York Times columnist William Safire has just died
of pancreatic cancer.
I don't always agree with Safire's politics, but I've always found his writings to be intriguing and worth the read (not to mention rib-ticklin' when he got going with alliterations)
In memory of Safire, here's my favorite "Rules for Writers," from the man who came up with such gems as "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history":
- Remember to never split an infinitive.
- The passive voice should never be used.
- Do not put statements in the negative form.
- Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
- Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
- If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
- A writer must not shift your point of view.
- And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
- Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
- Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
- Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
- If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
- Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
- Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
- Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
- Always pick on the correct idiom.
- The adverb always follows the verb.
- Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.
William Safire, R.I.P.
Link: NY Times Obit
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Klosterman on Facebook/Twitter
Do you use Twitter or Facebook?
I really get the most out of Twitter when events like the Iranian elections went down. (the only reason to like Twitter, aside from this).
Chuck Klosterman has a seriously cool interpretation. Enjoy.
I’m more of a Facebook type that just shares links. Have a nice weekend.
Hit Play or go to You Tube
|
Comment (4)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Cake Wrecks: Interview with Jen Yates
Take cakes that are so bad they're good, mix in a great sense of humor and what do you get? A madly popular blog phenomenon, and now, a book as well! Jen Yates, the founder of Cake Wrecks, one of my all time favorite blogs, has graciously agreed to do an interview about cakes, the universe and everything.
But first: the book. As I'm sure you all probably already know or can
guess, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong
But there's something very subtle about the book that made me appreciate
Jen and Cake Wrecks even more. This is something I came to realize only
after I read the advance copy of the book (I know, I know, the perks of
being a famous blogger). Cake Wrecks is actually the celebration
of having a bad cake. It's an homage to Murphy's Law asserting itself
over flour, sugar, egg and shortening mixed together
and popped in the oven.
Think about it: how many birthday parties have you gone to and not remember a whit of what happened? Now, if you had one where the cake was horribly wrong (but still very yummy) - wouldn't that stick in your memory forever? (I can imagine the conversation - Q: "Hey, remember that party with the foot cake?" A: "Yeah ... good times!")
'Nuff said. Let's get on with the interview:
Neatorama: Before we talk about cakes, I'm curious about what you wrote for the "About the Author" portion of Cake Wrecks, and I quote "Jen has been a clown, a cash office accountant, a Jungle Cruise skipper, a business owner, a children's book inventory expeditor, and a house painter."
Now, if you don't mind - a clown? Really? What's that like? Did you come up with your own Jungle Cruise skipper jokes? And just what the heck is a children's book inventory expeditor? Sounds like a smuggling ops.
Jen Yates: Hah! Yes, I do have some interesting "work" experience. Ok, let's see...being a clown? That can be surprisingly difficult, on account of your not being allowed to retaliate while being kicked in the shins by a horde of candy-seeking 9-year-olds. Heheh. Other than that it was a blast, though. I learned to juggle, make balloon animals, and perform funny skits. This was during my teens, so that's also where I first learned public speaking skills, believe it or not. We visited hospitals, shelters, expos, churches, you name it.
Jungle Cruise was also fabulous, and yes, we got to ad lib a bit. That's where my love of puns truly blossomed. There's this crashed plane on the ride, and I made a game of fitting as many plane puns as possible into the few seconds we had before it passed out of sight. (I think I got up to 8 or 9.) I wasn't happy until the whole boat was groaning in agony.
My other jobs were less glamorous. The expeditor gig? That was me in a cubicle calling various national warehouses to see if their shipment had arrived yet. Lots of spreadsheets. :)
Neatorama: What's the very first cake that got you thinking of creating Cake Wrecks - the cake that started it all?
Jen: Yes, that cake really and truly DID start it all. My friend Abby e-mailed it to me, and the idea for Cake Wrecks just hit me. I think I started the blog that very night, just for fun.
Neatorama: What's your favorite cake wrecks?
Jen: My favorites are usually the ones with the communication breakdowns. The literal stuff like the Under Neat that cake, and then the garbled phone order ones.
Cake submitted by Elizabeth R.
Remember the flash drive cake? That's the one where the customer wanted a photo cake, and so brought in the picture they wanted on a portable thumb drive for the bakery to print out. Instead, the bakery drew an exact replica of the flash drive on the cake! Heh, I LOVE stories like that.
Neatorama: Let's see some geek cred - what are the geekiest cake wrecks you've ever gotten?
Jen: Game console cakes are really popular, especially for grooms cakes, and I've seen some doosies:
Cake submitted by Monique B.
Cake submitted by Diane B.
Here are a few more geeky Wrecks:
Cake submitted by Maggie G.
Cake submitted by Kelly J.
Cake
submitted by Gretchen W. (That's supposed to be Luigi, believe it or not)
And this one's not a Wreck, but I thought it was funny:
Cake submitted by Amy L.
I *think* that says happy birthday in binary. Am I right?
__________
Jen has kind enough to offer a free copy of the book for a giveaway - got any question for Jen? A lucky commenter with the most interesting question will win the book (I'll post Jen's reply as an update).
More wrecktastic blogger interviews with Jen Yates about her new book:
- Blogher with Julie Godar
- Serious Eats with Erin Zimmer
- The Pioneer Woman with Ree Drummond
- Geek Dad with Doug Cornelius
Links: Cake Wrecks | The
Book at Amazon: Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong
Update 10/3/09 – Jen has picked the question to answer. Find out more here: Link
|
Comment (43)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Home & Garden » Dishware, Drinkware & Flatware | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Dishware,
Drinkware & Flatware »
|
||
Can You Identify the Author of this Commonplace Book?
Artists use sketchbooks to store ideas for future use. Bloggers have folders of bookmarks. And some authors keep notebooks or “commonplace” books.
One well-known author recorded “ideas, images, & quotations hastily jotted down for possible future use… for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memory or imagination working. Their sources are various—dreams, things read, casual incidents, idle conceptions, & so on…”
In order to keep his/her identity secret for the few moments it will take you to peruse this post, we’ll use for a photo the family grouping at left without saying which one he/she is.
In 1934 the author presented the notebook to an R.H. Barlow “in exchange for an admirably neat typed copy from his skilled hand.” Several hundred selections from this commonplace book have been assembled at La Petite Claudine. I’ve winnowed the list down to just a dozen. Aficionados will recognize the writer immediately and can access the rest of the material at the link.
8 Hor. Sto. – Man makes appt. with old enemy. Dies—body keeps appt.
31 Prehistoric man preserved in Siberian ice. (See Winchell—Walks and Talks in the Geological field—p. 156 et seq.)
34 Moving away from earth more swiftly than light—past gradually unfolded—horrible revelation.
76 Ancient cathedral—hideous gargoyle—man seeks to rob—found dead—gargoyle’s jaw bloody.
88 Lonely philosopher fond of cat. Hypnotises it—as it were—by repeatedly talking to it and looking at it. After his death the cat evinces signs of possessing his personality. N.B. He has trained cat, and leaves it to a friend, with instructions as to fitting a pen to its right fore paw by means of a harness. Later writes with deceased’s own handwriting.
106 A thing that sat on a sleeper’s chest. Gone in morning, but something left behind.
112 Man lives near graveyard—how does he live? Eats no food.
131 Phosphorescence of decaying wood—called in New England “fox-fire”.
142 Members of witch-cult were buried face downward. Man investigates ancestor in family tomb and finds disquieting condition.
182 In ancient buried city a man finds a mouldering prehistoric document in English and in his own handwriting, telling an incredible tale. Voyage from present into past implied. Possible actualisation of this.
190 Primal mummy in museum—awakes and changes place with visitor.
217 Ancient (Roman? prehistoric?) stone bridge washed away by a (sudden and curious?) storm. Something liberated which had been sealed up in the masonry of years ago. Things happen.
Link. Photo via Chepachit.com.
|
Comment (21)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Most Controversial Magazine Covers
Web Designer Depot has a good round-up of the most controversial magazine covers that have graced the newstands.
While some controversial covers have worked and sold more magazines, or won awards for the editors who made the decision to go to press with them, others were embarrassments that the publication had to either apologize for, or fire an editor over.
A few memorable ones came to mind when I started reading, and sure enough, they were there.
|
Comment (7)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Where the Wilds Things Ought To Be
Lots of artists are entering the contest “Where the Wild Things Ought To Be”, placing characters from the Maurice Sendak classic into other worlds, real and fictional. The entries include Max and his buddies in The Dark Knight, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Where’s Waldo, and even on Fox News! This entry has Vincent van Gogh illustrating the book Where the Wild Things Are. Link -via Super Punch
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Translating Moby Dick Into Emoji
Image: Fred Beneson
Emoji are pictographs and emoticons common to text messaging in Japan. The scale of this language has grown so much that Fred Beneson of Creative Commmons wants to translate Herman Melville’s Moby Dick into emoji. The novel has 6,438 sentences, and he hopes to crowdsource the translation project out to people interested in completing at least one sentence of the novel.
Link via BoingBoing
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Servant Until Death
Shaun Usher of deputy dog has a new blog called Letters of Note which shares classic correspondence of all kinds. One that stands out is from a slave named Vilet Lester to a member of her former owner’s family, written in 1857. Here is an excerpt.
I am well and this is Injoying good hlth and has ever Since I Left Randolph. whend I left Randolf I went to Rockingham and Stad there five weaks and then I left there and went to Richmon virgina to be Sold and I Stade there three days and was bought by a man by the name of Groover and braught to Georgia and he kept me about Nine months and he being a trader Sold me to a man by the name of Rimes and he Sold me to a man by the name of Lester and he has owned me four years and Says that he will keep me til death Siperates us without Some of my old north Caroliner friends wants to buy me again. my Dear Mistress I cannot tell my fealings nor how bad I wish to See youand old Boss and Mss Rahol and Mother. I do not now which I want to See the worst Miss Rahol or mother I have thaugh that I wanted to See mother but never befour did I no what it was to want to See a parent and could not.
The post contains a transcript of the entire letter and a photograph of the handwriting. Link
|
Comment (17)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Exploiting Chaos - New Book by TrendHunter's Jeremy Gutsche
Our pal Jeremy Gutsche, the founder of TrendHunter Magazine – one of the neatest websites around, by the way – has an interesting new book titled Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying popularized by John F. Kennedy that the Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters, danger and opportunity. That turned out to be a fallacy, but the reasoning behind it is actually not all that bad.
In his book, Jeremy outlines ways you can utilize chaos and the current economic uncertainty for your benefit (shades of Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel saying "… Never let a serious crisis go to waste" perhaps?). For example:
Crisis creates opportunity
Prior to the Great Depression, the only cereal brand that mattered was Post. After your great-grandfather silenced the piercing bells of his wind-up alarm clock, he savored the delicious taste of Post Grape-Nuts. Launched in 1897, the cereal dominated the marketplace leading up to the 1930s.
As the Great Depression tightened its angry claws on America, Post found itself hungry for cash. The prominent cereal maker assumed they "owned" the market. How could anyone stop lusting for Grape-Nuts? Accordingly, advertising budgets were cut to weather the storm.
As the managers of Post reclined in their rawhide chairs, bracing for a slow economy, a hungry tiger lurked in the shadows. That tiger was the Kellogg Company. Their mascot, Tony the Tiger, had not yet appeared, but his insatiable spirit was already born.
While Post retreated, Kellogg doubled their ad spend. In 1933 their campaigns introduced slogans like "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" and "You’ll feel better": motivational mantras during a gloomy era. The investment paid off. Americans loved the message and sales began to grow. Kellogg’s became the go-to pick for breakfast cereal and your great-grandfather abandoned his beloved Post Grape-Nuts.
The upbeat impact of a crisis is that competitors become mediocre, and the ambitious find ways to grow.
For such a serious topic, the book Exploiting Chaos is a rather breezy read. Jeremy himself acknowledged that our reading habits have changed (I blame texting) – you can browse the colorful book in a sitting. Anyhow, the real gem here isn’t the anecdotes that you get from the book, but the ideas, impetus, or kick-in-the-pants or whatever you want to call it – that you may get from reading it.
Check out the first chapter of Exploiting Chaos, available as a free PDF download here: Link | Exploiting Chaos website | Book available starting Sept 1, 2009 – Thanks Jeremy!
|
Comment (1)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Weirdest Magazines Still Around Today
Our pal Asylum blog has compiled 15 of the weirdest magazines still in publication today. Included are Crappie World Magazine (unbeknowst to me, crappie is a type of fish), Bacon Busters (Australia’s hog-hunting magazine – not, I repeat not, a cooking mag) and Girls and Corpses (a self-described "Maxim Magazine meets Dawn Of The Dead" – you’ve been warned).
Check out the whole list here: Link
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Reading Rainbow Cancelled
After 26 years of teaching children (literally my entire life), Reading Rainbow is being cancelled. It’s not for a lack of interest, but a lack of funding for the show. NPR says the show also was victim of a “shift in the philosophy of educational television programming,” that started under Bush.
I don’t know how many of you grew up in the 80’s, but Reading Rainbow will be sorely missed by those of us who did have the show to thank for our early interest in reading.
|
Comment (27)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Where The Wild Things Are Cupcakes
Fans of the book will love these delicious cupcakes. They’d be great for any kids party, but that doesn’t mean adults won’t enjoy them too.
These are texas-sized snickerdoodle cupcakes. For frosting and decorations I used chocolate ganache (Moishe), canned vanilla frosting (Max), sprinkles, store-bought gumpaste eyes, and fondant colored tinted by hand.
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Punctuation Hero or Vandalizing Grammar Nazi?
Stefan Gatward has been wrestling with inner turmoil ever since the Birmingham city council began removing the apostrophes from the city’s signs this January.
Finally, his frustration was too much to bear, and Stefan took it upon himself to fix the signs. But he didn’t stop there …
He will not join the ‘five items or less’ queue at the supermarket, in protest that the sign should read ‘five items or fewer’.
He also gets annoyed when people-neglect the ‘Royal’ in ‘Royal Tunbridge Wells’, and was vexed when he saw a major chain store advertising sales with signs saying ‘until stocks last’ rather than ‘while stocks last’.
‘I fought for the preservation of our heritage and our language but some people seem happy to let that go. I’m not,’ he said.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (81)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
| Neatorama Shop » Toy & Games » Giant Microbes | ||
 |
 |
 |
See more Giant
Microbes » |
||
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
