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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The State of the Nation.

The closing section of Harper Magazine's weekly review of news from around the world which arrived today:
The lone bookstore in Laredo, Texas, closed, and a Georgia mother punished her 12-year-old son for his bad grades by forcing him to hammer to death his pet hamster. Erich Segal, the author of "Love Story," who coined the phrase "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry," died of a heart attack, as did "Spencer" crime novelist Robert Parker, whose body was found at his writing desk. "He loved doughnuts," his agent said. A popular British health club released an ad warning "fatties" that they would be the first to be eaten by aliens. Moments before Gillian Cooke, a British bobsledder who will compete in the Winter Olympics, jumped into her sled during a World Championship event, her suit split open and revealed her buttocks. A visitor to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art tripped and fell into Pablo Picasso's "The Actor," causing a six-inch tear to the canvas. The saltmarsh sparrow was found to the be the most promiscuous bird in the world, and a pair of swans stunned staff at a British wildfowl sanctuary by becoming only the second couple in 40 years to divorce. To dispose of the elderly, Martin Amis, age 60, called for euthanasia booths "on every corner where you could get a martini and a medal," and scientists concluded that engineers could learn from slime.

7 comments:

  1. Did Harper's REALLY misspell the name of Parker's detective? Really? What ever happened to copy editors?

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  2. <...and scientists concluded that engineers could learn from slime.>>

    I didn't know engineers were studying politicians.

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  3. Indeed they did, Pat. And low blow there, Rob.

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  4. FWIW, The sole bookstore there in Laredo, Texas, was barely worth being called one by modern standards. No coffee, nowhere to sit and peruse a book, etc. Small mall type store. There are though, bookstores at the community college and the university there. But for the almost quarter million people there who do not go to those facilities, they are out of luck for about 18 months, at which time, Barnes & Noble (Or the almost bankrupt Borders, can't remember which) says it will open a large store there. Meanwhile, the nearest decent bookstore from there? 140 miles away by interstate highway. Nope, don't miss the place.

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  5. And yet you seemed happiest when you were there, not yet seized by this current insatiable desire to travel and visit people thousands of miles away. Perhaps you should move back, open a bookstore and recapture your mojo.

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  6. From what I heard on PBS Laredo will have a new Barnes & Noble, who was/is the owner of what was the last bookstore in the Laredo Mall: BDalton.

    And in response to the "low blow"--- I was in a foul mood after the idiotic results from my Father's home state Senate election. Complacency in the State Dem party and a bad candidate are the reasons for the Dem loss, not any statement on Obama. Slime they seem(ed) to me. And I'm not over it just yet...

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  7. Hwy, I didn't say it was an unfair or undeserved low blow.

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