Cloudy day, take two

Today wasn’t too significantly different than yesterday — hence the near-identical image up at top. I did see someone getting arrested outside a Duane Reade drugstore from the train this morning, which is unusual for my morning commute. I felt a little weird watching them handcuff the guy — for what, I don’t know — but we were sitting in the station for a few minutes, and the car I was in overlooked the drugstore’s parking lot. This evening, nothing half as exciting happened. Although the train was packed and very slow — they say because of a cable fire yesterday that’s been causing delays ever since — and at the stop before mine, the guy next to me got his umbrella caught in the door and it would only open halfway (the door, not the umbrella). A few of us standing there — yeah, I stood for the whole hour-plus train ride — tried to pry the umbrella loose, my headphones briefly becoming wrapped around it, but even when we did, the door didn’t open any further. Which led to a whole lot of grumbles by the people who had to squeeze through the narrow gap to get out. Luckily, the door wasn’t damaged and closed, or we’d have been stuck there instead of finally getting to my stop.

Anyway, that was Tuesday. The stuff in between the train rides was even less exciting, believe me. Onward to Wednesday and the second half of the week.

Tuesday various

  • Textbooks Up Their Game. The Wall Street Journal looks at the evolving world of the textbook market and the role that e-book volumes will play in it.

    The iPad does seem better suited to the textbook market than most other e-readers, if only for its versatility. But I can’t see app-ready editions of textbooks having much widespread appeal (beyond the student who already owns an iPad) or impact, unless the price of Apple’s reader and/or the books comes down significantly. Students are unlikely to pay $69.99 (much less $84.99) for a book they can’t re-sell and that, once the iPad stops working or needs to be replaced, is gone too.

  • Daleks voted the greatest sci-fi monsters of all time. It’s a weird list. The original poll was for “Monsters, Supernatural Beings & Fantasy Creatures,” which means picks like Aslan makes more sense — although a CGI lion with the voice of Liam Neeson is a little monstrous, too — but Pilot from Farscape?
  • Real or not, I think I can live without J.D. Salinger’s toilet.
  • Deconstructing the Twikie. Surprisingly, this hasn’t been done by Cockeyed.com. [via]
  • And finally, I’ve really been enjoying Zach Handlen’s Star Trek: The Next Generation recaps:

    It can be difficult to convincingly show love in fiction, because the experience of falling for someone is both highly personal and curiously universal; the details and shared moments are what give the feeling texture, but the rush and elation of it are things that we all share. So you’ve got to find some way to make the small moments appear distinct and honest so that the big moments feel earned.