I watched Jon Stewart deliver his scriptless take on the Tucson shooting (see below), nodding my head in agreement. But my friend Pat stood up and walked out of her living room.
Why? Pat’s mom suffered from a mental illness and she can’t stand how loosely terms like “crazy,” “nutjob,” and “loon” are being thrown around to describe the shooter. Yes the Tucson shooting is a monumental tragedy, but what if the first tragedy was that Jared Loughner didn’t receive the help he should have? Few people are talking about that.
Pat wrote a wonderful editorial title “Get educated about mental Illness” for the Muncie Star Press that has made me look at this tragedy in a whole new way….
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My local book store is a wreck. This photo is proof. A photo biography of Johnny Cash (bottom right) is in the business section with other “cash” related books. Also note the Dale Earnhardt commemorative Sports Illustrated (top left). Hey, I guess “crash” is close to “cash.”
This is exactly why I hate the lack of an independent bookstore in Muncie. This is someone’s job. They aren’t doing it because they love books or the alphabet or common sense. They probably don’t make much over minimum wage and their health plan consists of 10% off fruit smoothies at the cafe.
When big boxes win, we lose.
…
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“We’ll take fill in the Christmas (Blank) for $300, Jamie.”
Our family Christmas was divided. The Timmermans on one couch, the Wilts on another, and the Hutchcrafts sat on the floor except my uncle Reed who always seems to be in a rocking chair. My cousin Jamie had made a Christmas-themed Jeopardy on her laptop, and we were battling it out.
The Question…
They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph) join in any reindeer games, (like ___________).
We (the Timmermans) knew the answer. We’ve been singing it “football,” since we listened to Rudolph on our record player as kids. So when the Wilts answered “Monopoly” (each family shared their answer to every question) we felt sorry for them. But when the…
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Yesterday was World AIDS Day. I couldn’t get this voice out of my head so I thought I would share it. Susan is a single mother of six. I met her this past spring in Kampala, Uganda. She lost her husband to AIDS and later tested positive herself. Because of funding cuts at her clinic, she doesn’t receive the proper ARV treatment and no longer receives food for her and her children. She’s 1 of 35 million living with AIDS.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaHkE2LaR4w&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube] …
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They were blue. They were testicles. And they were huge. They swung from the pickup truck in front of us.
“I’m going to call him,” I said, “and tell him that his blue moose nuts make me sick.”
Annie laughed.
I picked up my phone and started to dial the number on the tailgate decal advertising a tree-trimming service.
“Are you really calling him?” Annie asked. I showed her the “calling” screen on my phone.
“Yep, I’m going to tell him how unprofessional blue moose nuts are and how I would never use his service because of them.”
She tried to talk me out of it. I didn’t listen. But when the first ring rang I pictured the fella answering his phone, turning around…
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCiTAJi1yRk[/youtube]
Nothing says Hope like planting a seed on a bald bust of the President of the United States and hoping it grows.
Enter: Chia Obama
Yes, we live in a world where people will buy a Chia Obama, a Chia Lincoln, and even a Chia George Washington.
I had a Chia lamb back in the day. My grandma got it for me for Christmas. I spread out the seeds, applied the fertilizer, and my sheep appeared to have gone through a long series of chemo treatments followed by being trapped in a burning barn. The grass was anything but even and mostly barely there.
I was devastated. On TV it was magic “Ch-ch-ch Chia” and boom there was a beautiful coat, or afro, or wig. Heck even the…
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James Frey, author of “A Million Little Pieces,” whipping boy of Oprah, fictionalizer of facts, wearer of a beard, seer through droopy eyes, wants to publish your book.
Excited?
He’ll pay you a whopping $250 up front.
Excited now?
$250 is barely enough to buy a shotgun and ammo at Wal-Mart to shoot dead your literary career.
Yet writers are signing on with Frey’s Full Fathom Five publishing company. Frey and his company are profiled in a recent New York Magazine piece, James Frey’s Fiction Factory.
Here’s what Conrad Rippy has to say about the contract Frey is offering:
It’s an agreement that says, “You’re going to write for me. I’m going to own it. I may or may not give you credit. If there is…
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photo from flickr creative commons by bixentro
I was on one side of the room. My head full of stories of the garment workers I met around the world and ideas about how students can make a difference in their lives.
On the other side of the room were two recruiters from Marlboro. Their heads filled with information on who their customers are and ideas of how to get more.
Between us sat 150 business students. The battle for their souls began.
Okay, it wasn’t quite that dramatic. I wasn’t the angel on one shoulder and the Marlboro men weren’t the devil on the other. They were actually really cool…
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“How’d he get on the Daily Show?”
I often ask myself this. No matter how much I try to pretend there isn’t, there is some bitterness in the thought. Some, “I wrote a book that’s serious and funny about a subject very relevant to now, and I didn’t get on the Daily Show.” Hrmph!
Last night Philip Dray was on the Daily Show talking about his 784-page book on the fight for worker’s rights: There is Power in a Union. Last night during the show I checked Amazon. The book was ranked 35,000-something. This morning it is in the hundreds. After my five-second pity party about “that shoulda been me” I got to thinking about this.
Is a book on unions good for ratings? Probably not.
Wouldn’t it be…
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A big thanks to John at Provocate for passing along this underwear related news item to me. It’s only with the help of friends like John that I maintain my ranking as one of the top 10 living underwear journalists in the state of Indiana.
(From the New York Review of Books):
A Guantánamo commander has accused British lawyer Clive smith of smuggling Under Armour Briefs and a Speedo swimsuit to two prisoners he represents. Smith denied the claim and responded in a letter:
It seems obvious that the same people delivered these items to both men, and it does not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that members of your staff…did it…. I have done a little research to help you in your investigations.
I had never heard of “Under…
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