He still receives royalties from the "Jeopardy!" theme, which he wrote in less than a minute. "That little 30 seconds has made me a fortune, millions," he crowed. How much exactly? "You don't want to know." Please, Mr. Griffin, do share. "Probably close to $70-80 million In the Chatting Olympics, Look for Merv Griffin
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: More Fun With Distribution Models
There is nothing so pleasant as to give oneself trouble for a person who is worth one's while. For the best of us, the study of the arts, a taste for old things, collections, gardens are all mere ersatz, succedanea, alibis. In the heart of our tub, like Diogenes, we cry out for a man. We cultivate begonias, we trim yews, as a last resort, because yews and begonias submit to treatment. But we should like to give our time to a plant of human growth, if we were sure that he was worth the trouble. That is the whole question: you must know something about yourself. Are you worth my trouble or not? Marcel Proust, Le Côté de Guermantes
Neil Gaiman blogs that his new novel, Anansi Boys, will have four simultanously released distribution methods: hardcover book, download, audio CD and MP3 CD. I hope we see some numbers on the relative performance of these formats. Release date is September 20.
• Literary Curve [Online news items have a lifetime of just 36 hours Fifteen minutes of fame? ; Round Up by Magnificent Matilda Weekend Round-Up #22 ]
• · Three of Salon's most popular stories in the last few weeks have featured those words, says editor-in-chief Joan Walsh. "I still think that affinity relationship is the key to why people actually pay money to support Salon -- they value us, the relationship, and increasingly they value one another," she says. Thoughts from Jay Rosen, Samir ("Mr. Magazine") Husni and others. Future of magazines: Net could empower readers ; Fitzsimons: A lesson in making history alluring
• · · Half the literature, highbrow and popular, produced in the West during the past four hundred years has been based on the false assumption that what is an exceptional experience is or ought to be a universal one. Under its influence so many millions of persons have persuaded themselves they were 'in love' when their experience could be fully and accurately described by the more brutal four-letter words, that one is sometimes tempted to doubt if the experience is ever genuine, even when, or especially when, it seems to have happened to oneself. -W.H. Auden, The Protestant Mystics Kokoda Trekkers Haverleigh ; For Søren Kierkegaard each person was engaged in an individual quest for truth in the stages along life’s way. Fear and Trembling
• · · · Umberto Eco has made a name - and fortune - for himself in the role of thinking man to the masses. Not that we understand what he is going on about most of the time. Nigel Farndale asks him to explain himself Heavyweight champion ; We should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life Life is Seen as Precious, Depending on the Issue
• · · · · Czechs are obsessed with kangaroos even a soccer team is named after them and now Bohemian musicians want to live among kangaroos; Tomas Strnad
• · · · · · Tuna salad...the new Anthrax? ; The Online Magazine for Writers and Book Lovers