“Unable to replicate the success of his first novel [The Loom of Youth],” writes Philip Quarles, “[Alec Waugh] did create a lasting impact by being credited with inventing the cocktail party when he shocked guests by serving, instead of afternoon tea, rum swizzles.”
Evelyn Waugh’s Brother Invented the Cocktail Party
Cool Story, Bro
The word "cool" has been cool for more than 70 years. At Slate, Carl Wilson examines why this slang stuck, and how it's evolved from being used by beatniks to smartphone companies. "Cool is an attitude that allows detached assessment, but one that prizes an air of knowingness over specific knowledge. I think that’s why it doesn’t become dated, unlike hotter-running expressions of enthusiasm like groovy or rad." Pair with: Michael Agger's essay on why we love the "cool story, bro" meme.
Curiosities: A Decision To Incorporate A Cold Motif
"Dibs on Darcy... You can have Wickham!"SNOOTs slander Strunk & White.New York Magazine offers an exhaustive - nigh unto Talesian - look at the marriage of Gay and Nan.For Colson Whitehead, "The Coolest Writer in America is obviously [DC Comics villain] Mr. Freeze..."...while, for luminaries at the PEN gala, it's Mr. Doctorow.Vanity Fair on "The New Yiddishists": "They have this idea they don't want to be pigeonholed." Oops.Bookslut decamps for Berlin, where she will become, presumably, Buchschlampe.For "that pleasant L.A. malaise," see this annotated reading list.Cool old covers for sci-fi chestnuts (via The Book Bench)......and hot new covers for classics (via The Second Pass).Joseph O'Neill becomes the latest beneficiary of President Obama's literary stimulus plan.The exclamation mark is back!!!The Esquire Fiction Contest is also back. All entries must be titled "Twenty-Ten," "An Insurrection," or "Never, Ever Bring This Up Again."S.E. Hinton was literary royalty at the L.A. Times book festival.
Bound
"Think the kennel partner was a man? Think he was, in Braverman’s telling, threatened by her success? You are correct. There are so many stories like this, in Double Bind, of ambition built up and then put in its place: the high school classmate who sneered to Roxane Gay, when he learned that she’d been accepted to Yale when he had not, 'affirmative action.'"
Scrabble For Cheaters
Next Saturday I will be competing (fiercely, one hopes) in Scrabble For Cheaters, a charity tournament to benefit 826CHI, Chicago's chapter of the national creative writing organization (founded by Dave Eggers) that provides free tutoring, field trips, writing workshops and the like to over 4,000 Chicago students a year. To support their work, and augment my ability to cheat during the tournament, click here and scroll down to my team - The Dillon Panthers. Thanks!