Saturday, February 26, 2005



In Memory of Hunter S Thompson: I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me Begging To Differ

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Prep Graduates to Bestsellerdom

Curtis Sittenfeld and her book PREP continue to draw press, this time in the Washington Post. The book recently landed on the NYT bestseller list (after making numerous other lists--including the Post's--earlier in the month), and by the Post's account the book has "nearly 100,000 copies" in print. Sittenfeld promised her English class pizza if she made the list.
Every parent of a teenage girls and maybe even boys finds the book worthy of all the attention: it is an almost clinically accurate and absorbing glimpse into the daily life of an exclusive, privileged place. People who have read "Prep" go on enthusiastically about the smells, feelings, colors and emotional range that Sittenfeld appears to have recollected from her Groton days -- and built on once she got to St. Albans. Beyond the setting of PREP, the novel is more deeply about the universal experience of being a teenager, and about learning to let go of the weirdness, the damage of having been one -- perhaps more so than any novel in decades.


Prep Teenagehood [It's a picture of Homer Simpson by the dead spirit of Picasso Reviews ; Dead Poets Society: Move Over, Holden ]
• · A stone carving in one of Rome's biggest cathedrals may hold the answer to the question being asked by Catholics around the world: will Pope John Paul II survive his latest health crisis? The carved marble monument to Pope Sylvester II, who ruled the Catholic church 1,000 years ago, is said to moisten when the death of a pontiff is imminent. Today, a priest touched the carving in Rome's Basilica of Saint John Lateran and confirmed it was dry - good news for the Pope, who underwent windpipe surgery yesterday after being rushed to hospital with breathing problems. Cold Drops; He's no stranger to controversy, but the Pope's latest published thoughts on abortion and gay unions are sure to spark debate inside and outside the church Two of the most powerful words in the English language are "evil" and "extermination"
• · · Forget about peace marches, poetry and poverty. Today's students pay their fees and work hard. That's all part of being the customer Tertiary Reality: Uni isn't what uni was ; Loneliness in Australia has a masculine face The solitary confinement of the Aussie bloke
• · · · Lonely? No chance, say young women sharing digs Women living in group housing are the least lonely people in the country ; Blokes warned: get married, or be lonely when your mates do
• · · · · Travellers sometimes need to break away from the tourist trail ; MJRose Reader and the Word
• · · · · · As Gonzo in Life as in His Work; Hunter S. Thompson directory ; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The widow of journalist Hunter S Thompson said her husband killed himself while the two were talking on the phone