Saw the Terracotta Warriors exhibit on Tuesday in Manhattan. While it may be literally ancient history (they were buried in 300 B.C.), it’s also fascinating: The way the clay army of 8,000+ life-size figures was discovered (very recently), what they signified, the story of the megalomaniacal First Emperor (for whom China is named)…. And try to imagine the original eight thousand different generals, charioteers, archers, soldiers, jugglers, horses, cows, etc.—each now a plain clay beige—painted in vivid colors. It’s mind boggling. http://nyti.ms/Kdw1w5
Funny “Behind Every Great Novelist Is…” cartoon for review of John Sutherland’s “Lives of the Novelists” in the NYTimes. http://nyti.ms/KO1Aeo
Illustration by Grant Snider
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Love the idea of a whole blog celebrating the bookshelf—even as I'm clearing mine out these days....
Usually I could give a flying fig about Fig Newtons but I ate up this little Advertising item in @NYTimes this morning as it explored the history of the brand. Here’s my favorite part:
“We needed to let fruit be the core of the brand as opposed to the fig,” said Gary Osifchin, who has the enviable title of senior director of wholesome sweet snacks at Kraft. “It was going to be hard for us to advance the Newtons brand with the baggage of the fig.”
I knew figs had roughage, but who knew figs had baggage? Apparently customers and Kraft’s senior director of wholesome sweet snacks see figs as “geriatric” so now the line of cookies is just called the much younger-sounding ‘Newtons.’
The Newton Fruit Thins actually sound right up my alley, so I’ll be checking those out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/business/media/the-newtons-cookie-goes-beyond-the-fig.html?_r=1
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Warren wrote a piece on The Faster Times blog yesterday in honor of Samuel Beckett’s birthday that re-imagines the play “Waiting for Godot” in the age of Twitter - it’s called “Waiting 4 @godot” (And don’t miss the Beckettization of Charlie Rose link below):The rest (yes, there’s more!) is on http://www.thefastertimes.com/blog/2012/04/13/waiting-4-godot-by-sambeckett2012/The Internet. TweetDeck. Morning.
@esty: U there?
@vlad: I’m here.
@esty: No not U, I was tweeting 2 him. Any sign of him?
@vlad: Not a tweet out of him.
@esty: Maybe he tweeted & U missed it?
@vlad: If he tweeted I’d know. Been here on TweetDeck 4ever. Besides, I checked his profile. Zero tweets.
@esty: Zero? Still? Why did he bother 2 join Twitter?
@vlad: Maybe he didn’t. Could B some1 using his name. No way 2 know 4 sure.
@esty: What do we do now? Should we leave the TweetDeck? Come back later?
@vlad: But what if he tweets & we R not there to read it? Better not leave. Nothing 2 B done but wait.
@esty: But we should do something. While we have the chance. What if I DM him?
@vlad: How can U DM him if he’s not following U?
@esty: How do U know he’s not following me?
We’re headed to California next week and I fully expect to see idiots trying to load cars and whatever into the overhead airplane bins. Love this New Yorker cover!
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Bruce Springsteen and about 100 other musicians perform “The E Street Shuffle” on The Jimmy Fallon show. Watch the audience run on stage to dance at the end. Fun!
The official NYTimes caption for this photo is “Jewish boys wore costumes for Purim near Tel Aviv.” I think they just could have called this “Bizarro moment” and been done with it. It looks like a still from a Kubrick movie…
Facebook, Google, Amazon, YouTube, Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter… every time I turn around they’ve changed their interface—different colors, different buttons, new terms. I think they’re trying to make things simpler, but the end result is I’m now just getting tired of adjusting, relearning, and explaining to others (all the old documentation and screenshots go out the window)…
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