For starters, I know now that female lubricating fluid is not glandular in nature, but has something to do with blood plasma; that Pyrex glass is very useful indeed in giving vaginas to women who had none, a condition called vaginal agenesis; and that Virginia Johnson’s son (she of Masters & Johnson fame) does not approve of semi-serious science writers sniffing around his mother’s work, particularly when his mother’s work involves a functioning sex machine with a camera attachment.
Listening to Roach’s work, as opposed to reading it, gives me the sensation that I’m a not-too-willing passenger on a thrill ride - I never know what new odd fact will come at me around the next blind turn, and I’ll both smile and cringe as it comes flying into my face. (Dr. Kinsey once stuck a toothbrush up his urethra… bristle end first! Aaaaah, too much information!)
If you see a guy on the train with white earbuds, alternately chuckling and wincing, maybe both at the same time, that’ll be me.
A friend sent me an invite to Shelfari. I didn’t know what to do.
I’ve been a loyal user of LibraryThing for a while now. I liked the site so much I got a lifetime membership, one that lets me put my whole library on the site (not just the 200 books allowed to free members), I started pushing it onto my friends, and I even started a group. On the whole, LibraryThing and I have been a happy pair.
Getting a Shelfari account made me feel like I was seeing somebody else on the side. (“Baby, honest, there’s only you… that other broad don’t mean anything to me… there’s a good explanation why my books are on her shelves…”) But there was more to Shelfari than just her sexy GUI. Read more…
“Mammal.” Christopher Hitchens drops this word into god is not Great no less than 20 times (believe me, I checked), and I imagine its effect on you depends on whether you accept his premise.
For Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and many other atheists, there is far more wonder to be found in understanding nature than in any paltry religious fable. Come face-to-face with the incomparable beauty of evolution, Hitchens says, and “now at last you can be properly humble in the face of your maker, which turns out not to be a ‘who,’ but a process of mutation with rather more random elements than our vanity might wish. This is more than enough mystery and marvel for any mammal to be getting along with [page 9].”
Hitchens uses “mammal” to go much further than this, of course. Read more…
I’ve acted on Jessica Zafra’s rave reviews only once – when she gushed over Robert Olen Butler’s collection of Vietnam-themed short stories, I found the book in question at National Bookstore Katipunan and got it for myself. Mind you, that was more than ten years ago, but the book is safely in my collection, and I have no plans of letting it go.
I wonder what Zafra would make of this latest twist in Butler’s life story? His wife, non-Pulitzer-prize winning author Elizabeth Dewberry, has just left him for Ted Turner. Yup, thatTed Turner. As if that weren’t potboiler-worthy enough, Butler writes an email explaining the circumstances and sends it to five grad students, who apparently mistook Butler’s encouragement – “you need not keep this to yourself, if the occasion arises to speak of it to someone” – as permission to copy-furnish the world. Read more…
I love this book series for its simplicity, its moral clarity, and its unabashedly feel-good tone; I love it so much, I’ve foisted the book on anyone who seems remotely interested in fiction of that sort, with mixed reactions. Now, with a TV miniseries on its way, I can foist to my heart’s content when it comes out on local listings. A year or so from now, but still.
The choices don’t seem too surprising in retrospect; some genius choices, albeit the lineup isn’t exactly perfect. I reserve the right to quibble a bit, but overall it’s a satisfactory casting call. Here are the people confirmed by my numerous sources on teh Intarwebs: Read more…
“Mammal.” Christopher Hitchens drops this word into 
I wonder what Zafra would make of 
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