Excellent book title!

This is the best book title I've seen in ages:

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride.

Apparently a YA novel; sounds like urban fantasy perhaps. Will have to check this out — all based on the title.

Thus, the moral of today's story is that a good title sells books. (Or at least encourages readers to take books out of the library.)

Fondly remembered and deeply missed

"He was a bright man who made bad puns and verbal quips, injected trivia, big words and foreign phrases into his teaching, joked about popular culture, politics, the world around us. No one like this had entered my orbit before, and I was transfixed by both his intelligence and his obvious love for his profession." — from an assignment for EDSE 504, July 2006

There are no words.

L

How Social Media Will Contribute to the Erasure of History

Have you ever looked up one of your favourite musicians or actors on Wikipedia? Was that person ever involved in any sort of criminal activity (for instance, spousal battering)? If so, chances are the celebrity's PR people are actively monitoring the Internet to ensure that any references to that criminal activity, whether proved in court or not, are absent.

Say you were a relatively important Seventies folk-rock singer. Say you were involved in the 1980s with a beautiful, talented, well-known actress. Say your relationship ended and subsequently allegations of domestic assault arose. Could it be possible that you, formerly important musician, have enough resources to sue the allegations out of existence, and to ensure that these allegations (now "retracted") stay extinguished? Even to the point of ensuring that your PR handlers tell journalists foolishly seeking to interview you NOT to raise "The Thing"?

Well, ha, Mr Formerly Famous Musician. Ha. I may like your music, but you personally just may be a waste of skin as a human being.

The Insomnia Defence

The Best Health blog reports today that "A study done by business school professors and published in the Academy of Management Journal that looked at the behaviour [of] sleep-deprived students and nurses found that those who lacked sufficient shut-eye increased bad behaviour such as rudeness, inappropriate responses and even stealing."

This explains a great deal, I think!

Sleepy and surly,
L