Starting 1 January 2006, the IMEX catalog will be available only on the web.
From American National Biography Online's biography of Ben Hecht:
"In 1910 he moved to Chicago and began working as a picture stealer (purloining victims' pictures from family homes for use in the newspaper) and factotum for the Chicago Journal."
The last Doctor Who spin-off doesn't seem to have made it past the pilot (though we still love Sarah Jane and K-9), but Torchwood is heading a different direction altogether, and has a 13-episode series ordered.
James Bond's employer, the Secret Intelligence Service (a/k/a MI6) has joined other formerly unacknowledged organizations in going public on the web. Their web tree structure interests me: on the one hand, having no hierarchy to your web site does make it easier to avoid giving anything away about your organization's hierarchy; but if you're going to go that far, why not just have entirely random page file names instead of "PageXX"?
Hey, is that the Doctor or the Second Coming?
It's like the opposite of Chicken Soup for the Soul: OSHA's true stories of teen tragedies.
"We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they said no."
and more likely to make one respond to a fundraising letter: the University of Idaho president made it abundantly clear that evolution is the way to go.
My page-a-almost-every-day calendar of Chinese progaganda posters is this weekend featuring a poster of a girl washing her hands in front of a poster of a girl washing her hands, in front of a poster of a girl washing her hands.... Oh, the mind does boggle. It's fairly entertaining how the background of these posters often feature other propaganda posters.
Australia's Supreme Court, in a shocking show of reason, has ruled that it's legal to play games you have legally acquired.
Van Helsing's Night Off, Mahler.
Near-wordless comics, perfect in timing and charming in drawing, worthy of the legacy of Sempe. Five stars.
Owly v.1: The Way Home and Bittersweet Summer, Runton.
Charming lil owl and lil worm. Rises above any cute animal comic you've ever seen. Four stars.
Bound, Napoli (Y).
It has been summarized as a Chinese version of Cinderella, but that doesn't do it justice. Napoli captures the magic realism in all great folklore and fleshes it out with detail and character with an expert hand. Hurray again for Napoli. (It was before I was saving reviews, but her book Breath was similarly powerful. Unfortunately there was no way I could take it to a school, since there was a naked witchcraft orgy in it, too. Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Four stars for love at first pun.
Yotsuba&!, Azuma
A very energetic and peculiar girl moves into a new neighborhood in Japan. I'm not a big manga reader anymore, but this one charmed the socks off me. I think the little girl is supposed to be bizarrely otherworldly odd, but she sure reminds me of a certain little girl I know. Three stars for high quality read backwards.
Daniel, Half-Human and the Good Nazi, Chotjewitz (Y)
In translation from the German, and it shows. Actually couldn't finish this one, but I'm desperately looking for historical fiction that takes place outside of the US that is geared to High School students. Which turns out to be appalingly rare. Daniel wants to join Hitler Youth, then everything changes when he finds out his mother was Jewish. Good detail on the events leading to concentration camps that I hadn't known about due to my horrible education in history. No rating due to not being able to finish it.
Kipling's Choice, Spillebeen (Y)
In translation from Belgian French, and not too bad. The last moments of John Kipling's life, and how they happened to be him dying of shrapnel damage in the first battle he got to in WWI, at the age of 18. Those reasons pretty heavily involve his famous father. Great detail on Belgium in WWI and Rudyard Kipling's change of heart after losing his only son. Three stars.
Blowing my cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, Moran
The true story of a very smart and traveled woman who got into the CIA-- great background on training and the internal politics (at least of a newbie), but after a while in the field, it got a bit boring. Which I think was her point, but then I didn't really feel like reading the last few chapters. Two stars for detail.
The Diary of Pelly D, Adlington (Y)
Demolition worker clearing up the rubble of a bombed city on another world (colonized by humans) finds a diary of a former resident. Started off as nothing much but ended up being very powerful. Four stars for keeping me reading and sticking with me.
Cute Manifesto, Kochalka
Hm, not as great as American Elf, and his ideas don't really measure up to his technique. I'm still a fan, though. One star.