Friday, March 30, 2007
What's Hot at BAM
Here are some books that seem to be generating interest at the store where I work. Please note that these are not necessarily bestsellers (New York Times, Books-A-Million, or even just our location), but I have noticed them selling or people are coming in and asking about them:
- You probably already have heard something about The Secret. The author appeared on Oprah -- twice -- which translated into the publisher having to do a second printing. One weekend we received 120 copies on Saturday and sold out by Monday.
- The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeanette Walls, a regular contributor to MSNBC. The book describes her years growing up in a family that might be described as eccentric, wandering through the Southwest until poverty forced a return to a West Virginia mining town. This is another one title we've had to reorder from the warehouse several times.
- 1,000 Places to See Before You Die is being made into a television series on one of the cable channels. I'm temporarily without cable, so I can't offer more information on that, but quite a few people have requested the book. The author also has a follow-up coming in June, 1000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die.
- Sidney Poitier's second autobiography, Measure of a Man, is another Oprah's Book Club pick. It is available in both hardcover and paperback.
- One Thousand White Women is a book I hadn't heard of until people started coming and asking for it -- enough that I asked if it was being read by a local book club. It wasn't -- people just wanted to read it. It is based on the true story of a woman who travels west to marry the chief of the Cheyenne nation in 1875.
- The Four Agreements, like The Secret, gives New Age-type advice -- in this case based on Toltec tradition -- on how to make life more fulfilling. I would like to hear from someone who has read both books and can compare them.
- In Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen tells the tale of a 90-year-old looking back at his experiences working at a third-rate circus during the Depression. Gruen donates a portion of her book royalties to animal charities.
Labels: Books-A-Million books reading work
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I Can't Imagine Why People Think He's Strange....
...I mean, just because a guy wants a 50-foot robot version of himself wandering through the desert shooting lasers...that's pretty typical. Right?
Why am I suddenly reminded of Mecha-Streisand?
Why am I suddenly reminded of Mecha-Streisand?
Labels: Michael Jackson celebrity robot south park
Friday, March 23, 2007
It's Knut Day!
Polar bears are some of the most fierce animals on the planet. I've heard that they are among the few animals that will kill for reasons other than food or defense.
But even so...how can you not love this little guy? Knut is the cub that was rejected by his mother at the Berlin Zoo. You can see more pictures of Knut here.
But even so...how can you not love this little guy? Knut is the cub that was rejected by his mother at the Berlin Zoo. You can see more pictures of Knut here.
Labels: animal polar bears zoo baby
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Hey, New Mexico...Welcome to the 20th Century!
It only took 18 years, but New Mexico finally got around to outlawing cockfighting. If you're like me, you thought that this "sport" was illegal everywhere in the U.S. Not only was that not true, it still isn't. Louisiana still allows it.
An "important cultural tradition"? Jim Crow, pogroms, and gladiator fights were cultural traditions at various times. And other states with large Hispanic populations, such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and California, managed to outlaw cockfights years ago. Hopefully being the last holdout to allow cockfights might help to bring about a ban in Louisiana -- but one might reasonably expect cockfighting to be comparatively low on the state's post-Katrina priority list.
An "important cultural tradition"? Jim Crow, pogroms, and gladiator fights were cultural traditions at various times. And other states with large Hispanic populations, such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and California, managed to outlaw cockfights years ago. Hopefully being the last holdout to allow cockfights might help to bring about a ban in Louisiana -- but one might reasonably expect cockfighting to be comparatively low on the state's post-Katrina priority list.
Labels: chickens animals laws New Mexico Louisiana
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Easier Than "Where's Waldo?"
It took me a while to get around to scanning this, but here it is. This is the cover of a special issue put out by Lindy's to commemorate the BCS champions. See if you can spot the error.
There actually is an article about the Gators; in fact all of pages 94-96 are about them. I e-mailed Lindy's about this (after the game), telling them that I planned to have the magazine mounted so I could display it alongside my "Dewey Defeats Truman" edition of the Chicago Tribune, my 2004 New York Yankees World Series pennant, my George W. Bush "Mission Accomplished" banner, and my invitation to the MGM party celebrating the Best Picture Academy Award for Ishtar. (Yeah, yeah, I know -- it was Heaven's Gate, not Ishtar.)
To his credit, Lindy Davis himself wrote me back a very nice message saying that they put out the issue, which came out several weeks before the championship game was played, because Ohio State has such a large fan base and buys so much "stuff." I also heard later that some stores in Ohio were selling championship t-shirts and caps, which I'm guessing have not been selling well.
Labels: Florida Gators football magazines boners Ohio State
Monday, March 12, 2007
My Conspiracy Theory
By now you likely have heard about the new Presidential Dollar Coin program. Every three months, the U.S. Mint will issue a new dollar coin depicting a U.S. president on the front, with each president appearing in the order they held office. The idea is essentially the same as the very popular State Quarters program. There is one big difference, however: People like quarters, but they hate dollar coins -- so much so that they seem to be trying to force them into use by having the Post Office use dollar coins for change in stamp machines.
You may also know that some of the George Washington dollar coins were released with the lettering on the edge missing. Someone on eBay (foolishly, it turns out) paid something like $600 for one such coin, as "error" coins are usually quite valuable. It turns out that about 60,000 of the "atheist coins" were minted and distributed, so their value has come down. However, they are still expected to trade for $40 to $60, and people are looking over their dollar coins very closely now.
All of which leads me to this question: Did the Mint deliberately make this "error" to encourage people to ask for the coins and get them into circulation?
This theory isn't quite along the lines of wearing an aluminum foil hat so the government can't read your mind. Minting of coins is a lot more sophisticated than it was in 1937, when the three-legged buffalo got out, and I'm sure there are a lot of computer safeguards in place. So not only is it less likely that such a big mistake could occur in the first place, but it is even more unlikely that nobody wouldn't catch this before tens of thousands of coins were circulated.
By the way, most of us don't really think about the edges of coins, but to the blind they are very important in helping to identify coins, and I think most of us also do so subconciously when we reach in our pockets. Pennies, nickels, and dollars (starting with Sacajawea) are smooth-edged, dimes, quarters and half-dollars have grooves on the edge.
You may also know that some of the George Washington dollar coins were released with the lettering on the edge missing. Someone on eBay (foolishly, it turns out) paid something like $600 for one such coin, as "error" coins are usually quite valuable. It turns out that about 60,000 of the "atheist coins" were minted and distributed, so their value has come down. However, they are still expected to trade for $40 to $60, and people are looking over their dollar coins very closely now.
All of which leads me to this question: Did the Mint deliberately make this "error" to encourage people to ask for the coins and get them into circulation?
This theory isn't quite along the lines of wearing an aluminum foil hat so the government can't read your mind. Minting of coins is a lot more sophisticated than it was in 1937, when the three-legged buffalo got out, and I'm sure there are a lot of computer safeguards in place. So not only is it less likely that such a big mistake could occur in the first place, but it is even more unlikely that nobody wouldn't catch this before tens of thousands of coins were circulated.
By the way, most of us don't really think about the edges of coins, but to the blind they are very important in helping to identify coins, and I think most of us also do so subconciously when we reach in our pockets. Pennies, nickels, and dollars (starting with Sacajawea) are smooth-edged, dimes, quarters and half-dollars have grooves on the edge.
Labels: coins, conspiracy, money
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Is It Leap Year Already?
Apparently getting from February to March is a bigger problem than Y2K was.
I have Caller ID, and both of the phones in my apartment have the necessary displays. What's convenient is that I don't have to program the time and date. The phones automatically get that info from the phone company.
Tonight I came home from work about 12:30 am and checked to see if there were any calls. Guess what? According to BOTH phones, it is February 29 right now. I'm wondering how widespread this is -- is it a local glitch? Is it affecting all BellSouth customers? (Yeah, technically we're now part of AT&T, but parts of the changeover is probably still being worked on.)
I have Caller ID, and both of the phones in my apartment have the necessary displays. What's convenient is that I don't have to program the time and date. The phones automatically get that info from the phone company.
Tonight I came home from work about 12:30 am and checked to see if there were any calls. Guess what? According to BOTH phones, it is February 29 right now. I'm wondering how widespread this is -- is it a local glitch? Is it affecting all BellSouth customers? (Yeah, technically we're now part of AT&T, but parts of the changeover is probably still being worked on.)
Labels: technology telephone
