Friday, November 04, 2005



Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory
-Albert Schweitzer

Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero by Catriona Kelly A Little Swine

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Tough Bunnies
Two academics decide to take a scholarly approach to Playboy's playmate prose

First surprise: Playboy centerfolds are tough, say two social psychologists who did a content analysis of the biographical text that runs with the photographs of Playboy's playmates.
Second surprise: There's text with those centerfold spreads?


Unconventional Wiz is shocked, shocked! [A look at research on avoiding the Desperate Housewives syndrome ; A nation of sidewalk publishers ]
• · From empty shell marriage to realising that trials give you strength, sorrows give understanding and wisdom ... Remember sadness is always temporary. This, too, shall pass are you ready to be happy? Secrets of Meditation e-course ; As the alcoholic says, my best friend is the bottle Happiness, Depression and Self-Esteem
• · · Ugly Feelings is a thought provoking book in the aesthetics of negative feelings with insightful reflections upon the social and experiential impact of artistic creations Negative emotions ; Have you heard the one about the new trend in standup comedy? Cleanliness. Good money is being made by unsmutty comics like those represented by Cleancomedians.com. There Once Was a Man From Nantucket . . ; The Faith-Based Encyclopedia
• · · · And on unearthing books embedded in pop culture (Watch out Weezer) ; Rethinking the debate on Male traditionalists who wring their hands at the "grim" lives of young women Empathy and Choices ; Summer in Vienna?
• · · · · From Salon, what do you get when you design a condom that men want to use? Sued. Inside the twisted patent battle over prophylactics ; Severed foreskins have all sorts of adventures Precision circumcisions
• · · · · · I wouldn't presume to advise beautiful and wealthy celebrities how to get along in life, and yet I think someone—some agent or manager or kabbalah rabbi—ought to lay down the law: No video cameras in the bedroom Porn of the Gods ; Lapping it up: What price a good time? ; Living With Debt a report on Americans' changing attitutes