Notepad

Something petty this way comes

Ray Bradbury apparently wants Michael Moore to apologize for alluding to a work of literature.

… Bradbury is demanding an apology from filmmaker Michael Moore for lifting the title from his classic science-fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451" without permission and wants the new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to be renamed.

"He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told the Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel. That's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it." …

"Fahrenheit 451" takes its title from the temperature at which books burn. Moore has called "Fahrenheit 9/11" the "temperature at which freedom burns."

Sheesh. Bradbury didn't ask Shakespeare's permission to use "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Or Yeats' for "The Golden Apples of the Sun." Or Whitman's for "I Sing the Body Electric."

And he didn't need to.

When someone alludes to your work, it's a compliment. It's one thing not to take a compliment gracefully — it's another thing to start demanding apologies.

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She came, she saw, she conquered

"The key in terms of mental ability is chess. There's never been a woman Grand Master chess player. Once you get one, then I'll buy some of the feminism …"
— Pat Robertson

I so wish Robertson had been at the library in Bear, Del., yesterday. Susan Polgar kicks ass.

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I had no idea when I bought the "family pack" of six rolls that "quilted" was actually a synonym for "adhesive."

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Six, maybe eight months ago I bought Tom Waits' Blue Valentine via Amazon. Now every time I go there, they want me to buy Small Change. Never Heart Attack and Vine. Never Swordfishtrombones. Just Small Change. Every time.

Thing is I already own Small Change. So there you go.

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly how Amazon's customer-recommendation algorithms work, but it seems to me that whatever formulas they've programmed in there don't seem to be giving a fair chance to the less-accessible, but often more rewarding pleasures of Tom's later work. The programmers should make that algorithm listen to Rain Dogs at least twice, maybe with headphones, before it decides that Small Change is the only thing worth recommending.