David Sedaris wrote a new book of essays. In the days before bloggers got book deals, Dave Secretary told funny stories on the internet. What are the rest of us doing? According to the Times, we’re eating gay fruit. Too bad J.D. Salinger’s girlfriend was only allowed one berry a day. Salman Rushdie let his girlfriend eat all she wanted, then she dumped him and made a career out of food. But I’ll still be the meat in a Rushdie/Martin Amis sandwich.
Libertarian paternalism is the doctrine of mildly manipulating people to make wise decisions. So if you paint a fly in a urinal, men will improve their aim. If you narrow the space between the yellow lines, people will slow their cars around bends in the road. So far it seems that Thaler and Sunstein (the philosophy’s authors) are using their powers for good and not evil. But this could all change with the right influential touches. See Richard Ross’s photos from “The Architecture of Authority.” Just throw some blankets over the windows and pave over the carpet, and you’ve got yourself a prison riot.
Everyone take a moment to appreciate Cabinet Magazine online. See “Days I’ve Been Alive Represented by Dots” by Ron Lent. I want to see inside those dots! See “Vasectomania, and Other Cures for Sloth.” As long as we’re curing sloth, here’s “The Web Habits of Highly Effective People,” featuring the ultra-productive Maud Newton.
Did you know that “less than 5% of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female“? So ladies, it might be easier to get your bare butt into the Met than into Playboy. This is no time to give up on getting naked. Speaking of art, artists and art critics at Minnesota’s The Rake have teamed up to form The Vicious Circle. The Circle’s blog seeks to bridge the acrimonious divide between creators and creative critics. This will be especially interesting if you happen to live in Minneapolis, and I know that some of you do. What’s the weather doing over there? How’s the local sports team?
Old people: what are they good for? This geriatric MD believes “older people are the healthiest people on the planet.” Plus they’re far more adaptable than young people. Plus their legs grow back when you cut them off! Or at least that’s what my grandmother has been telling us since the surgery.
Lastly, watch how negative space can create poetry. Ponder what this means for art, and for the world, and for the cereal box on your kitchen counter. “whole grain/sun-sweetened/high blood pressure/www.kashi.com.” This is harder than it looks.