Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Yesterday's Wall Street Journal and New York Times (and many other outlets) reported that the Houghton-Mifflin trade division will be "temporarily" suspending acquisitions of new books. (The textbook division, which provides most of the company's revenues, is not involved.) This comes in the wake of H-M's purchase by an Irish software company last year. I applaud; there are too many books chasing too few readers, and monster publishers are tempted to "buy" store space with co-op budgets that small publishers cannot afford, while publishing whatever they can find just to meet a preset publishing program.
• Here's a hilarious takedown of one of the most precious and irritating new-media types I've ever had the misfortune to read-with, as a bonus, a rare example of the use of the word "gnomic" in its classical sense.
• And while we're on Slate, here's a slightly lightweight item on the psychology of car-horn honking.
• Computer-hardware-as-tasteless-joke is something I've not seen before, but these guys certainly get credit for balls...
• ...and so do people who rant and rage against grade-school Pilgrims-and-Indians pageants, especially when there are plenty of American Indians who support them. (School administrators seem to exile balls to the school playground in such cases...but never mind.)
• Here's an interesting but fairly tough 33-question quiz on American history and civics. I scored 100% without "peeking," but I also read history as a hobby and actually think about politics rather than blindly wave a tribal banner. Let's say that I wouldn't have done this well had I taken the quiz right after my mostly indifferent college education. I had to guess on one question (correctly) and probe really stale memories for another. Can you guess which two questions I had trouble with? (Thanks to Terry Dullmaier for the link.)
• While trying to be a Nice Guy, I bought a bunch of CFLs after they became politically correct, only to see every damned one of them burn out in about six weeks. I lose a lot of filaments here-must be the altitude, or top secret Air Force projects at nearby NORAD-but incandescents go at least six months in the same exact sockets. Finally, an article in the engineering press about why CFLs aren't necessarily a gift from the angels. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.)
• Where can you get "extra" Lego bricks without buying sets full of stuff you don't want? (This was and remains a serious challenge for Meccano/Erector hobbyists.) One word: Bricklink.
• Damn. I never tried Zima. Now I guess I won't get the chance.