I've been spacey all day today. I keep reading and hearing things wrong. I keep going into rooms and then forgetting why I'm there. We have just moved; and it is called SEA CHANGE.

Publishing Peter Olson Is Really Two People

Olson's dispatches the last couple years have followed this formula: He congratulates Random House employees on achieving miracles the previous year, then predicts a dark time for the coming one. When the next December rolls around, he rinses and repeats, exulting in the great achievements of Random House the prior year (the same year for which he once foresaw such gloominess) and reverts to the we're-bleeding talk for the coming twelve months.
· Random [PW]

Secret history of Prague

Prague's mystical side is one of its major attractions, but it was a specific incident several years ago that first prompted Kuchar to consider compiling what he calls the city's secret history. A tourist expressed great interest in the building in which Kuchar lives, pointing out that Max Brod, the man who edited Franz Kafka's work and an important figure in 1930s intellectual circles, had lived there. The knowledgeable traveler pointed out the window of Brod's flat -- Kuchar's very own window.

The coincidence intrigued him. Kuchar took it as a sign and decided to investigate further. "The best way to find out about something is to write about it," he says.
· Mysteries [Prague Post]

Politics Thatcher

Communism was defeated in our lifetime - defeated above all
through the efforts of that great American president, my friend Ronald Reagan. His name will be remembered for as long as there are men and women on this earth who value their liberty and honour those who secure it.
· Cold War [CapitalR]

Conservatives vs liberals.

It is more a matter perhaps of instinct than reason, of jocks vs freaks in a schoolyard. For all that, the gulf bedevils public discourse.
· What defines the political debate [NY Times]