This American Wasteland

I cannot count the hours of the past six months of my life that were devoted to This American Life, between listening to the program, applying for the internship, and listening to the program more so I would do better at applying for the internship. Ira Glass appeared in my dreams, sometimes as an overweight, over-made-up middle aged lady. It reached a level of perverseness before I accepted this job, which turned my thoughts to climate change (also a questionably unhealthy obsession). And I didn't get the internship. The reason being my stories didn't follow the trademarked narrative arc, which you can get an idea of in this article from the Onion. The letter said it probably had a lot to do with thousands also applying for the same one position.

Today Morgan, who once ran into Ira Glass on the street in New York and left me a voicemail saying, "I am flipping the fuck out," sent me a parody of This American Life done by a San Francisco comedy group. It's definitely worth a listen, if only for the deliberately practiced impression of Ira Glass.

Before there was Charles, there was Erasmus

Darwin! He's thinking, " Don't wave that little stuffed bunny at me while you sculpt. I'm so unbustogenic. I despise the future."

And that's it. Science dorkitude has now permeated my entire life. I wasn't always like this! Cry for me.

In a brief attempt to make up for the person I've become, I will return to my former habit of recommending a few books.

"My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk
The writing in this book is worthy of being called classic, and the plot and narration are unbelievably compelling. Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year and I highly recommend reading his lecture if you consider yourself a writer.

"White Noise" by Don Dellilo
I read this a few years ago with Chris Bachelder, who, if you read his book "Bear V Shark", ripped off a lot of ideas from this book because he's admittedly obsessed with it. Now I'm re-reading it, and it's much better when you're not speed-reading on the block plan.

"The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
Great for summer reading! Light and enjoyable, this modern Russian classic tells the tale of hundreds of strangers sent to live in a Soviet labor camp! Who knows what extreme cold, and deprivation will make them do?! You're sure to see me lounging poolside, totally engrossed in this honey of a paperback!