Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

I would have skipped over this piece three years ago — that is, before our first dog arrived and quickly raised my awareness of creatures large and small, legged and winged, that I previously disregarded — and what fascinating stuff I would have missed. Such as:
“Most young birds, even those hatched just weeks ago, don’t [...]

I’m not the biggest Joan Didion fan you’re going to meet, but having just read Slouching Towards Bethlehem, I see why others are drawn to the quasi-classic. She’s clever, at times very clever, and while seldom breezy, even a slow reader like me turns her pages quickly. (Sometimes too quickly; because she rarely constructs scenes, [...]

Buy a massage or tickets to a play — not the latest gadget or doohickey. That is, if you want to be happy, says this piece in the Times:
“Current research suggests that, unlike consumption of material goods, spending on leisure and services typically strengthens social bonds, which in turn helps amplify happiness. (Academics are already [...]

Thank you, James Surowiecki, for writing a column I hope is read by sane legislators (and presidents) everywhere:
“People in the ninety-fifth to the ninety-ninth percentiles of income have represented a fairly constant share of the national income for twenty-five years now. But in that period the top one percent has seen its share of national [...]

Good news from down on the farm:
“Concessions by farmers in [Ohio] to sharply restrict the close confinement of hens, hogs and veal calves are the latest sign that so-called factory farming — a staple of modern agriculture that is seen by critics as inhumane and a threat to the environment and health — is on [...]

From Are Liberals More to the Right Than They Think?:
“The study does contain a cheering side note for the liberal at heart. Those who identified themselves as leftists and whose views reflected the same were happier than those on the right.”
That’s funny. Whenever I hear a clip of Rush’s xenophobic, paranoid rants, he always seems [...]

Turns out, the world’s greatest movie writer is a great writer period. I don’t know how, as he battles cancer, Roger Ebert can review six movies a week, write books, and pump out thoughtful missives on everything from the BP oil spill to the beauty of Chicago architecture. But he does. A recent post at [...]

If the excerpt of the forthcoming book I read in Granta tonight is any indication, I predict big things from this Mark Twain guy.

Thankfully, someone is saying it.

I have joined the Scott Russell Sanders fan club. I love his persona on the page — fumbling around, as he does, with the big questions. Meditative, soothing, and affecting are other words that come to mind. With lovely language, he makes me see my world in another light. From Staying Put:
“My frisky mind keeps [...]

When I heard Maile Meloy interviewed on public radio some months ago, I appreciated her insights into storytelling. I hadn’t known about the book she was on to promote — the paperback edition of Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (though my eyes must have passed over the title, as it was [...]

Walter Kirn isn’t up in the air in this essay:
“What purpose is served by this spreading fascination — this compulsive preoccupation, really — with transactions instead of actions and with negotiating maneuvers instead of outcomes? Not long ago, the average moviegoer (for simplicity’s sake, let’s call him ‘me’) was capable of attending the latest comedy [...]

Colin Robinson offers something to think about before making a book purchase at Amazon.com.

Listening to the car radio this afternoon, I heard yet another political analyst rail against partisanship. “It’s both sides!” he said. I keep wondering … If one side of an argument is delusional, what choice does the other side have but to stand firmly on sane soil? Where’s the middle ground between the Earth and [...]

I wonder if, after he finished writing this column, Jon Tevlin did a dance of sorts himself (while fully clothed, I mean). Good stuff. Though, for the record, I am not one of “those guys.”

I want more Mel Gibson news like I want soggy croutons in my salad. But Christopher Hitchens wields a lethal weapon:
“We live in a culture where the terms fascist and racist are thrown about, if anything, too easily and too frequently. Yet here is a man whose every word and deed is easily explicable once [...]

I could care less about the personal doings of celebrities — whether before the Twitter Era or in its midst — but Ben Brantley makes a good point that I think also applies to those of us who are nonentities: mystery is highly underrated.

From Susanna Daniel, writing in Slate magazine:
Writing is hard — writers say this all the time, and I think probably only other writers believe it. But it’s not nearly as hard, in my experience, as not writing.

Katherine Kersten offers additional reasons to support the of end marital discrimination — even though few, if any, of them will come about.


Travel tip: don’t treat your dog as luggage.