WE KNEAD REAL NEWS: The Washington City Paper‘s cover story this week is about bread. No, really. Bread. Fancy schmancy bread, and why D.C. residents are oppressed by big chains who deprive us of yummy fancypants bread like they have in New York City. Here’s a pull-quote [!]: “‘You can get better sourdough boules in the San Francisco airport than you can here. And that stuff is for tourists!’ —bread aficionado Lucy Bisognano” Look, I’m basically a big City Paper... Read more

“I probably shan’t return before dawn. How I detest the dawn. The grass looks like it’s been left out all night.” –Clifton Webb to Kirt Kreuger, “The Dark Corner” Read more

Just one post today, and a sad one: Chuck Jones, of Looney Tunes fame, is dead at 89. He was not only a creator of great cartoons (including “Rabbit Hood,” “Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century,” “What’s Opera, Doc?”, “Nelly’s Folly,” “One Froggy Evening,” too many fine Pepe Le Pew shorts to count, and–wait for it–“Martian Through Georgia”). He was also the author of one of the funniest books I’ve ever read: Chuck Amuck, his autobiography. R.I.P. Read more

TWO CLONING LINKS: Good stuff from Shiloh Bucher and Thomas Nephew. I found these through Nephew’s Newsrack blog, which in turn I found through Ted Barlow, because I’m waiting for a phone call that’s now 46 mins. late. Oy. Also, this New Republic article is well worth your time. (Why do I keep saying that? I’m confused. Make the neolib goodness stop!) It’s about immigrants, their children, and why it’s harder to make it in America than you might think.... Read more

KEATS AND YEATS ARE ON YOUR SIDE (WHILE WILDE IS ON MINE): Poetry links… An Anglo-Saxon riddle. Philip Larkin, “Aubade”. T.L. Beddoes, “The Last Man.” G.K. Chesterton, “The Rolling English Road.” I’ll post more later. And if anyone can find Eliot’s “Sweeney Agonistes” online, or Larkin’s “Party Politics,” please let me know… Read more

JIANG PLAYS GRETA GARBO: An amazing report from the Times of London. Read this if you have any interest in China. Read more

Read this intriguing Matt Welch post on Slovakia. Read more

SUPER CHOMSKY BROTHERS: So there’s this new PlayStation game, “State of Emergency,” in which you get to play an anti-globalization rioter. And Salon has this article on it. Now, I don’t want this site to become SalonSkipper; but this is too good to resist… First off, apparently none of the righteous rioters are white. From the game intro: “…its me and Ricky Trang, and a rainbow coalition of kickass who gots our backs — cholos, niggaz, kung fu kids from... Read more

AYN TOO PROUD TO BLOG: Uh, right. If you were looking for that Questions for Objectivists site, it’s here. Sorry I forgot to link to it in previous post. Localized brain breakdown. (It’s also linked over on the left-hand side of the page there, so you can always find it! Isn’t that helpful?) Read more

“Tony, when you let guys use you, be sure they’re smart guys.” –Robert Ryan to Tito Vuolo, “The Racket” Read more