Rants
The Zinoviev email
Dirty tricks and October Surprises are nothing new. Four days before the 1924 general election, the conservative Daily Mail published a letter they claimed was written by a senior Russian Communist (Grigorii Zinoviev) to the British Communist Party. These were their headlines: The letter made it clear that the socialist Labour government were little more…
Read MoreUm, like, you know?
I love NPR. But sometimes, it puts my teeth on edge. I don’t listen to a lot of radio, mostly when I’m driving somewhere, but my local station (KAZU, 90.3 FM, at CSUMB) keeps me company whenever I’m on the road in Santa Cruz county. However, I have a complaint–not aimed at KAZU, mind you, but…
Read MoreLaurie King, e-dinosaur
Well, friends, we’re one step closer to this: To my great consternation, the 21st century is nipping at my heels. All these years, I’ve done copyedits on actual pieces of paper: I’ll finish a book and send my editor a lovely clean copy, spa she can take up her pencil and slash it to pieces, adding questions…
Read MoreServing all your podcastian needs
Podcasts, like audio books, are a great way of double-tasking your way through dull slices of life whether it’s on the freeway or a treadmill. There’s a lot of podcasts with my voice on them, floating around on the etherwebs, in which I and others talk about writing, or Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell, or…
Read MoreEntertainments
Movies used to have disclaimers to say that no animals were actually injured in the making of the film–they don’t bother saying that now because it’s simply assumed. Cigarettes are on their way out in films, with complaints lodged even when NOT having the character puffing away would be odd. But what about crying children?…
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