A World of Speculation

This explains a lot

Joe Strupp at Editor & Publisher relates how The Onion almost won a Pulitzer for its 9-11 coverage: The longtime editor of The Philadelphia Daily News was on the committee choosing finalists in the commentary category in 2002 when a submission from The Onion, the...

Bad news for brainiacs (or wanna-bes)

Brain scientist Barry L. Beyerstein breaks the bad news in “Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains?” All told, the foregoing suggests that there is no cerebral spare tire waiting to be mounted in service of one’s grade point average, job...

Seven basic plots

I’ve always wondered about the seven basic plots. John Leary lists and describes them here: 1. Man v (Wo)man 2. Man v Nature 3. Man v Environment 4. Man v Machine 5. Man v The Supernatural 6. Man v Self 7. Man v God The distinction between “nature”...

‘Anything, Mr. Frenkel’

Teresa Nielsen Hayden tells a great story on her blog, Making Light: It seems that Tor editor Jim Frenkel was approached at a convention by an attractive young lady, who said, “Golly, Mr. Frenkel, I’d do anything to be a published author.”...

Image?

This picture means that I’ve taken off the html training wheels and I’m riding my little blogger bicycle all the way to New York City by myself! The photo is of a fountain titled the Triumph of Good over Evil outside a cathedral off Broadway. I was on...