Monday various

  • Six new plays by William Shakespeare? That seems like an awful lot, a bit of overkill actually. And, of couse, as everybody knows, Mr. Norman Voles of Gravesend wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays. His wife wrote the sonnets. [via]
  • Still, it’s not impossible that these plays have been missing until now. The British Library reports they’ve misplaced some 9,000 books. And this follows in the wake of earlier reports of mis-shelved or missing books at the Library of Congress — none of which gives libraries a good name. (And they already have critics like Kevin Myers to contend with.) Still, when all is said and done, what I really want to know is: what’s a “luxury edition” of Mein Kampf? [via]
  • Speaking of books, how’d you like a book of all your Twitter posts? While it might be nice to have that kind of permanent record — Waxy.org suggests that “someone should make this a service, also incorporating your Flickr photos and blog posts” — I’m not convinced it’s a permanent record I’d ever want to read.
  • It will take a lot more than color e-paper to impress me with this boring design and hefty price tag, but still, it’s a pretty neat feature. My own e-reader doesn’t do color covers very well. [via]
  • Tasha Robinson on Repo: The Genetic Opera:
  • Sometimes “cult film” refers to a movie that failed in theaters, but was eventually embraced by a vast, dedicated underground support network; sometimes the term is just slapped on anything that’s so offensive, weird, or narrowly focused that only a small, determinedly perverse collective could love it.

    It does get thrown around way too often nowadays.

Saturday various

Friday various

Wednesday various

  • Scales on bus stop benches to shame people into going to the gym? It sounds like an interesting idea — how much do these thing cost, and easily damaged are they in public places? — but also like a terrible marketing idea. [via]
  • Old age begins at 27? I wish I could say I didn’t believe it. Maybe going to the gym isn’t such a bad idea after all. [via]
  • Missing Doctor Who tapes in Zimbabwe? Time to step up the diplomacy, United Kingdom! [via]
  • Is Diebold even pretending they’re not trying to rig an election anymore? [via]
  • If Fox thinks removing extras from DVDs is going to encourage me to buy instead of rent, they’re sadly mistaken.

Tuesday various

  • Reading this essay about writing retreats and Heather’s posts about her ongoing writing residency at the Banff Centre…I have to say, I’m more than a tiny bit jealous.
  • Man, I wish Steve Martin had helped pay for my high school’s plays!
  • Okay, that’s not entirely true. I never actually went to any of my high school’s plays. I did see some really decent productions of Grease and Damn Yankees when I was in junior high, though.
  • Seriously, the head of the (elected) Republican party doesn’t even know why Greenland is called Greenland. This goes beyond the global warming debate; this is fifth grade social studies he’s failing there.
  • Edgar Allen Poe to publishers: Sorry for being such a drunk. [via]