Friend Dick Lemon is reading a book that airs the dirty laundry of famous writers (he's promised me a copy, which I'm looking forward to). His reading has inspired Dick to pen the following poem, which I found amusing--and accurate.

WRITERS AND BOOKS

Writers of words are a curious lot,
Some of them act well but many do not,
Some make good husbands and fathers and such,
But many are wastrels who don’t care for much,
A few are most modest but that’s rare indeed,
Most pursue fame not with love but with greed,
Some are quite generous but most compete
With both the high and the man in the street.
Such piffle it is, for books on the shelves
Are free of their writers and speak for themselves.

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...if we can believe this article in the Malaysian Star. Dr. Vinton Cerf, computer scientist extraordinaire, lists "Barry Trotter" as one of the books on his desk.

Suddenly I am seized with a desire to rewrite the book. Are there any jokes slamming the TCP/IP protocol? If so, Mr. Cerf, I swear to God I didn't mean it. Because if there's anybody who's figured out a way to reach through the internet and kill me, it's you, and I'm really really sorry for what I said about packet switched computer networks.

He was born in New Haven, CT, which makes me like him already.

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After months of telling you about this, I'm finally ready to unveil the website for Stutts University, the wholly fictitious yet eerily familiar college which is the setting of Freshman.

Check it out, I think you'll like it. And if you do, spread the love...

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...so it made sense that I adored Martin Scorsese's A Trip to Italy, a multi-hour documentary celebrating the films of Rosselini, De Sica, Antonioni, Fellini, and the guy who did "Senso," whose name I can't remember.

Fellini is the BEST. When I grow up, I want to be played by Marcello Mastroianni.

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Unclear on why this is happening, but it won't be happening much longer.

In the meantime, read this article on the commodification of the Irish pub.

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I just saw Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. It's the story of a 21-year-old university student from Munich who, along with her brother and some friends, dared to criticize Hitler in the midst of World War II. Tremendously inspiring--makes you think about right and wrong, your own courage (or lack thereof), and the nature of true heroism.

This story should be taught in every American school. Ordinary students, with everything to live for, standing up to the most brutal killers simply because their conscience told them to. I am awed by it.

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I enjoyed looking at this list of the world's top skylines.

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Fans of ninjas and George Clooney should check this out.

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