Not A Mystery
Books / Media
Bob’s Pasta Homage to Ron Popeil, Master of “The Turn”
Last night I made Pasta. And whenever I make Pasta I thank Ron Popeil, Pitchman Extraordinaire who perfected the Infomercial and made pasta a part of my life. I knew I loved Ron Popeil, but I didn’t know how much until I read the first chapter in “What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures” by … Continue reading
Stephen King Conjures up Jack Reacher In “Under The Dome”
I’m a huge fan of the author Lee Child and the character he created, Jack Reacher. (By the way Reacher even has his own Wikipedia entry.) And it turns out I’m not alone. A [for the moment] better known author shares my taste. Stephen King put a Jack Reacher Easter Egg in his new novel “Under The … Continue reading
Yes Mr. Galassi, There WAS More To Publishing Than Met The Eye
I try not to beat dead horses. But in this case I will make an exception. Once again we have a book publisher railing against the rising tide of electronic editions. Yesterday’s Op-Ed page in the NY Times featured a column by Jonathan Galassi titled “There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen” in which … Continue reading
It’s Never Too Late To Be Googled: A Procrastinator’s Delight
I thought that “The End of The World as We Know It” had already taken place earlier this year. And I was right of course, but for the wrong reason. Silly me. “Googled” by Ken Auletta, does describe the end of the world as we know it. But it’s not a financial meltdown, it’s a media … Continue reading
COP15, Compromise, Christmas And…Romance
Here a world conference, there a world conference. Whenever one of these big-time global confabs takes place, like COP15, I get the urge to watch “Girl In The Cafe” again. Released a few years ago, it is still strikingly relevant today. So right now would be a great time to rent, watch or purchase this DVD. … Continue reading
What’s Better Than Music Subscriptions? Coming soon, iCloud
What’s in a word? If the word is Cloud then the assumption is that it’s newer and better. Last week Apple bought the music service Lala. Without going into the gory details, Lala’s product allows you to access the music you already purchased from their cloud computers, no matter where you are located. The technology … Continue reading
Really Old Media (Perfume) Tries Something New
It’s refreshing when an industry looks to new ways of promoting their products instead of being stuck in the past. And especially when that industry could be the world’s second oldest. We are talking Perfume. Common wisdom is that demographics are a problem for the perfume industry, with people today wearing fewer fragrances. So what … Continue reading
Finally, It’s Time For “Love Actually” At Christmas
We don’t have many rules in our house, but interestingly two of them come into force during the Holiday Season. No Christmas music shall be played until the day after Thanksgiving. Bob’s favorite Christmas film, “Love Actually” can’t be viewed until December. Last night Leslie said that’s she’d got her head around the fact that … Continue reading
Not Just Another Gatecrashing Story
A well-timed coincidence is always intriguing, and this week has provided one. Readers of the blog may recall that I’ve mentioned Lee Child before, author of the Jack Reacher books about the adventures of an ex-Military Policeman. Amazon was kind enough to give me a free Kindle copy of what turned out to be the … Continue reading
Just One Word: “Subscriptions”
Have you noticed that the world is getting more crowded? No, not with people (although that’s also true), but with STUFF. We’ve discussed this in a few previous posts, notably on The Collyer Brothers, and MyLifeBits. So here’s a question to make it more personal: Do we own our stuff, or does our stuff own us? … Continue reading
A Huge (Pulitzer Prize Winning) History Read
“Freedom From Fear“ earned its author David Kennedy a Pulitzer Prize for History in 2000. You can think of Freedom from Fear as the academic’s version of The Greatest Generation: like Tom Brokaw, Stanford history professor David M. Kennedy focuses on the years of the Great Depression and the Second World War and how the … Continue reading
