In my recent post about my struggle to find a literary agent, an interesting discussion arose in the comment thread that I would like to answer in a whole post. Thanks to y'all for raising the issues.

Among other things, @tomreedtoon said:

I mean to say that in a short… Read full post »

On Sunday the New York Times ran a profile of a 58-year-old man who was laid off 18 months ago from a $225,000 job in the loan industry. Expecting "a glut of interviews," he bought two new suits with his severance pay but has never used them, because he hasn't had… Read full post »

James Dobson, founder and head of the Focus on the Family religious education and lobbying organization, is stepping down, the Associated Press reported.

The 72-year-old Dobson, a psychologist by training, has been one of the most powerful religious conservatives in the U.S. for decades. His Focus… Read full post »

Comedian Chris Rock on Larry King last night:

ROCK: The big thing right now is the economy. And people are going broke. And here: The choice isn't Republican or Democrat. The choice is you got a guy that's worth $150 million with 12 [sic] houses against a guy who's worth

… Read full post »

I've known some beautiful women, women who are very striking, women who turn heads. I don't claim to have dated many of these avatars, but I've become friends with a few, and there's a question I've always wanted to ask them, but which, because I don't want to be annoying or… Read full post »

Many articles in the last few days, such as this one on Politico and this one in the Washington Post, have focused on the cathartic anger being expressed at McCain and Palin rallies this week, and at the hint of mob mentality in shouts of "Get him!" and "Traitor!" 

But while… Read full post »

From 1998 to 2003 I worked on what would become my first finished novel. This book, set in 1960 (I was there before "Mad Men"!), was about a fictionalized Joey Bishop, his relationship to the other members of the Rat Pack, and the 20-year-old would-be dharma bum he hired to drive… Read full post »

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, whose recent unexplained absence from his state for four days was first explained that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail and then that he was "writing something," admitted today that he had actually spent the weekend in Argentina, fucking his girlfriend.

The w… Read full post »

Fooling around on this site, I clicked on "Topics" at the top of the page and then on several random tags -- religion, sex, mccain, and so on. I noticed  each tag has its own URL, so that if you click on a Topic, say "sex," you'll go to a page… Read full post »

Ted Haggard appeared yesterday before the press to promote the HBO documentary about him, "The Trials of Ted Haggard." (An ironic title, by the way, since Haggard has never been charged with any crime despite admitting to buying and possessing methamphetamine.) Among the entertaining statemen…

Read full post »

When I was a high school teacher in the mid-80s, each of the teachers was allowed to make x number of copies per semester. I had 5 classes of about 28 kids each. Want to know how many copies I was allowed to make for the whole semester? 150. That's right.… Read full post »

The Associated Press reported today that 2.5 million Beatles albums were sold in the five day period beginning with the September 9th re-issue of the group's catalog in digitally remastered versions.

I'm not sure what to think about that. On the one hand, I adore the Beatles, as… Read full post »

Focus on the Family, the influential fundamentalist media empire headed by Dr. James Dobson, will lay off 46 employees after sales of videos, books and other products failed to meet expectations, an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

The Colorado Springs company -- which has radio,… Read full post »

There's some suggestion that among the changes to be wrought by the coming president should be ending Daylight Savings Time. Among the reasons offered is that it doesn't save energy, it plays havoc with people's biological clocks, it's difficult for computer programmers to take into account, and it m… Read full post »

Today the publishing blog GalleyCat has a piece on the author Molly Jong-Fast and her decision to leave writing and become a literary agent. It's full of arresting statements about the life of a writer and why she doesn't want to be one anymore. 

Jong-Fast is the author of two autobigraphical… Read full post »

It is not possible to get from a spot out on Ocean Avenue near 19th in San Francisco all the way back to the Mission District in five minutes. Google Maps says it takes sixteen. Most days it would take twenty or more.

But, as I… Read full post »

All of us have, at one time or another, posted someone on a blog that is angry, stupid, insulting, possibly even illegal (threatening, etc.). And then we think better of it and take it down. 

It's gone, right? No longer exists?

Sorry, no. Google sucked it up, and perhaps the best… Read full post »

An article by Drake Bennett in yesterday's Boston Globe has some suggestions for what a 21st century New Great Depression would look like: Instead of people lining up at soup kitchens, Bennett says, people will be lining up at emergency rooms.

He's half right -- no doubt people without health… Read full post »

L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez visited Wasilla, AK to find out what it was really like and came away with this vlog posting in which he finds nothing but "strip malls, big box stores, chain restaurants and gigantic churches." He asks:

Do you really want someone in the White House… Read full post »

Illustration courtesy SFist

2:30 a.m. -- Digging through Le Monde, I see that Sarkozy and Carla Bruni love going to some place called Switzerland. I wonder if that's like Six Flags. Since Alaska is so deficient in amusement parks, I'll have to schedule a campaign stop to Florida to check… Read full post »

lgranzyk, in a recent post about many subjects, tagged the post with a number of tags, one of which was "q-tips." I couldn't help myself, I had to click on the tag. And I found that was the only post using that tag.

Have you heard the… Read full post »

Americans hold 10.8 jobs between age 18 and 42 -- Bureau of Labor Statistics (and courtesy @kmsalon).

I'm not surprised by that at all. Between 18 and 42 I was a cafeteria worker, school bus driver, dishwasher in a bar, sandwich cook, movie reviewer, messenger dispatcher, delivery tru… Read full post »

Here's a fine column from the MSNBC site about the Chinese drywall scandal. Briefly, the construction boom that coincided with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the real estate bubble meant that U.S. manufacturers could not meet the demand for drywall, a crucial component of building constructi… Read full post »

On Twitter, you have x number of followers, and you follow y others.  But on OS it's not easy to see how many people have "favorited" you.

Here's one way to find at least some of the other OS members who have made you their favorite:

1. Make sure you have posted
… Read full post »

I'm reluctant to admit it, but I am sort of in agreement with this sentence in the LA Times today on today's nationwide protests against anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives such as California's Prop. 8:

And it remains uncertain whether the aggressive tactics ultimately advance the activists' goal:… Read full post »