“One of the things I like about my job is that it draws on the entire person: not just your knowledge of grammar and punctuation and usage and foreign languages and literature but also your experience of travel, gardening, shipping, singing, plumbing, Catholicism, Midwesternism, mozzarella, the A train, New Jersey. And in turn it feeds you more experience. The popular image of the copy editor is of someone who favors rigid consistency. I don’t usually think of myself that way. But, when pressed, I do find I have strong views about commas.” Mary Norris‘s “Confessions of a Comma Queen,” from the New Yorker.
Comma Confessional
Peter Carey Point-Counterpoint
Contrasting takes on Peter Carey‘s Parrot & Olivier in America, from Open Letters Monthly and…er, The Onion.
Wild night
On Monday night Cheryl Strayed, also loved as The Rumpus‘s “Dear Sugar” advice columnist, was celebrated at Housing Works Bookstore. Tiffany Gibert gives us the scoop in the latest installment of #LitBeat.
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R. L. Stine Revisited
Eat Cheese and Die Happy!: an R. L. Stine title for my life. See more at McSweeney’s by Amanda Rosenberg.
The Naked Bookseller
Recommended reading, though perhaps not viewing: “On the strange, true tale of the naked bookseller.”
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Outrage
Barry Ritholtz, the godfather of financial blogging (and not your typical Occupy Wall Street protester) calls the U.S. a “corporate monarchy” and wonders “Why have the Europeans figured out they are getting screwed, and we haven’t?“
Cormac McCarthy’s Typewriter
On Friday, Christie’s will be auctioning off Cormac McCarthy‘s Olivetti manual typewriter, which he’s had since 1963. Looks like you need to make sure you’ve got at least $15,000 in your checking account if you plan on bidding. (NY Times article here)