Newley Purnell

I’m looking forward to seeing Michael Moore’s new documentary, “Bowling for Columbine,” which examines American gun culture. Not only do I admire Moore’s work (especially “Roger and Me”) and despise guns (well, I should say I despise handguns, but I don’t have a problem with arms used for hunting, or with hunting as an endeavor), but I couldn’t help but notice that the “Bowling for Columbine” trailer features one of my friend Chris’s favorite songs, Camper Van Beethoven’s “Take the Skinheads Bowling.”

My brother Mechum, who teaches Physics and Chemistry in Thailand, has added some excellent photos to his site. My favorite is probably the one of him conducting an informal English lesson in Burma.

Marissa Mayer, a Product Manager at Google, talks about how they keep the site so simple and user-friendly. (And on a side note, Mark Hurst, who runs GoodExperience.com, offers this intriguing photo of a Beijing cityscape. I like the juxtaposition of the modern buildings, the McDonald’s sign, the pagoda, and, on the building in the foreground, the Chinese flag.)

I saw the incredibly good WILCO at the 9:30 Club last night. And then I had a chili cheeseburger at Ben’s Chili Bowl. I am a happy man.

Here’s a poorly-written article on an interesting subject: why Dave Eggers wants to avoid the perception that, in achieving literary stardom, he’s sold out, and why, in a larger sense, selling out is so detested by certain people. As the article notes, the microscopic (10,000 copies) print run of Eggers’s new novel, “You Shall Know Our Velocity,” is initially only available via his Web site, and then the book will only be sold in certain independent bookstores.

Recipe for War

Prep Time: A few months
Cook Time: Maybe a month or so, but really there’s no rush

Ingredients:

“WHY I WRITE: TC Boyle, Roger Ebert, Lawrence Block, Tod Goldberg, Will Leitch, Claire Zulkey, Rob Walker, James Norton, Jade Walker, John Scalzi, Bob Sassone and Marty Beckerman on why they put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.” Some great stuff here.

First, Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times Magazine, says that DC sucks–and that New York City is “The De Facto Capital.” Then Slate’s Timothy Noah says “New York Is Not the Nation’s Capital–Frank Rich has it wrong.” My thoughts, having lived in New York and now living in DC: this is much ado about nothing. Washington and Gotham are vastly different cities, and one isn’t better than the other. In Des Moines and Phoenix and Atlanta and Detroit, no one cares about this stuff.

SpongeBob SquarePants: the new Tinky Winky.

“Point-Counterpoint: Wines.”

Nine years ago, James Tiu quit his job as a lawyer to sell vegetarian burritos on the street. Now he uses his legal acumen to advocate for other Washington, DC street vendors.

People build some crazy stuff with LEGOs. There’s the LEGO desk, the LEGO version of M.C. Escher’s “Ascending and Descending,” and, perhaps most amazingly, Henry Lim’s completely functional LEGO harpsichord. (And don’t miss Lim’s 14-foot-long, 6-foot-tall LEGO Stegosaurus.)

SeatGuru.com is a tremendously useful site. It provides precise descriptions of every seat on planes flown by American, Continental, Delta, US Air, and United. An indispensable resource, especially for long flights.

Arts & Letters Daily, one of my favorite sites, is closing. Too bad. The editors, apparently, will now be working with Philosopy and Literature, which seems to be a similar sort of endeavor.

The AP reports: “Montana’s Libertarian candidate for Senate has turned blue from drinking a silver solution that he believed would protect him from disease.”