- Scholars beware!
Experts on the various fungi that feed on the pages and on the covers of books are increasingly convinced that you can get high–or at least a little wacky–by sniffing old books. Fungus on books, they say, is a likely source of hallucinogenic spores. [via]
- I have to admit, I didn’t immediately understand this video (a collaboration with NPR’s Radiolab), but I liked it enough to re-watch from the beginning once my brain kicked in. [via]
- I have no idea if the new Scott Pilgrim movie will be any good or not. Some say awesome, some not so much. I know this will lose me some indie geek cred, but I’ve been stuck halfway through the first volume for several months, not particularly loving it. That said, I can totally get behind this:
There’s no reason to be angry at the people you imagine a movie will make happy just because you didn’t like the movie. [via]
- Oh come on, it’s an honest mistake. [via]
- And finally, I need to start riding the subways more often!
new york
Just keeping you posted
I stumbled upon this art exhibition in Grand Central this afternoon…which is ultimately about the most exciting thing that happened all day.
I’m very happy that tomorrow is Friday.
Thursday various
- So now it’s not “what the founding fathers meant” but “what the mid-nineteeth-century fathers meant”? Look, Iowa GOP, it seems to me that, if the best you can come up with is a version of a constitutional amendment that was never actually ratified, you’re grasping at straws. [via]
- Bloomsbury will e-publish a one-million-page Churchill archive. I’m imagining some lonely archivist shouting, “But it’s one million and one pages!” and being told to quietly get rid of the offending page. But that’s probably just me.
- “Carpe diem” doesn’t mean “seize the day“? Man, Robin Williams was a terrible teacher! [via]
- Man, more rejection letters should be like this. (Conversely, less of them should be like this.)
- And finally, first this, now this. I have got to start riding the subway more often!
Monday various
- Maybe you’ve seen these clever Old Spice commercials, or these responses to Twitter fans? But have you seen this terrific parody? Well, now you have. [via]
- I’m not always in love with Improv Everywhere’s “missions,” but this was pretty cute. How is it that I never seem to run into these things in Manhattan?
- John Sclazi discusses Canadians in Science Fiction Because, you know, there are.
- Also coming soon to Canada: Netflix streaming. This was part of the exchange deal for Tim Horton’s, right?
- And finally, last week I mentioned how this “I Write Like” meme that’s been going around was kind of dumb and inaccurate. Turns out, it’s probably also kind of a scam.
Thursday swelter
Another average day, notable mostly only because there was no air conditioning on my train home this evening. And while it was slightly cooler today that earlier this week, thanks to a tiny bit of rain in the morning, the temperature was still hovering around 90°F all day. The air conditioning was still sorely needed. It meant that I got a seat all to myself, in a mostly empty car, as other passengers went in search of fabled (and possibly nonexistent) cooler cars, but it also meant that we were rolling along in a sauna for some forty minutes. Still, as I overheard one other passenger say, “If I move, it’ll probably be just as bad, and I’ll be crowded with a whole bunch of people. I’d rather sweat all over myself alone.”
Beyond that, I’m just trying to get the latest issue of Kaleidotrope together…and realizing that I probably won’t until next weekend. Electronic copies have gone out to some reviewers, but it looks like contributor and subscriber copies just won’t be ready in time to mail them on Saturday like I’d hoped. I’m pretty confident they’ll be ready next weekend, all collated and stapled, so they’ll definitely mail out in early July.
And if you’d still like a copy of the latest issue — or better yet, a four-issue subscription — there’s no time like the present to act on that. Your copy is just a PayPal link — or money sent directly to me — away.
Meanwhile, I think I’m going to close the zine to submissions again for awhile, starting likely in September and running to the end of 2010. I really do want to go back to only two issues for next year, and this seems like the best way to ensure that I’m not so overstuffed with accepted stories as to require three issues again. An extra issue this July hasn’t proved too onerous, but it is an added expense, and the cost of producing an issue — certainly of mailing an issue — can be considerable. Anything I accept at this point is quite possibly not going to appear until April of 2012, and that’s edging into the ridiculous. I don’t want to start telling writers I’ll print their stories, but not for another two or more years.
So I think instituting a reading period is a definite necessity at this point. Then again, given what I’ve already accepted, another July issue might also be needed.
We’ll see.