I’ve just returned from yet another round trip to Chicago. Yes, because of a scheduling snafu (more about that in a minute), you’re about to be subjected to a third straight week of me on “Wait Wait.” And I’m not done with you yet: I’ll be turning around and heading right on back to the rapidly warming Midwest in six days.
Okay, the scheduling snafu? It seems that my fellow panelist Tom Bodett ande his wife got final approval on the 5 month-old boy they’ve been trying to adopt, and they had to go on down to Guatemala to get ‘im. You can drop on by his blog to congratulate him, then kick around what is really a tremendous website.
Speaking of congratulations-worthy deeds, I heard from Roy Blount Jr. last night that he is now the President of the Authors Guild. Yeah, I thought he was making it up too, given his penchant for outlandish claims [”I’m the single-season stolen base record holder!” “I can tie shoelaces with my mind!” “I’m Napoleon!” Honestly, I don’t know why I keep falling for that last one.] But apparently it is actual, real, bonafide news. Live and learn. So Roy is now a labor leader. Don’t expect him to follow in Jimmy Hoffa’s footsteps, though. Mainly because Hoffa’s probably still in them.
And as long as we’re talking about authors, if you look to the right you might notice a change on my book’s cover. The hopping Victorian guy has been replaced by an inverted pair of undeniably modern-looking legs. Those are not my legs. Still, I think that it might serve the material a little better, no? Beyond the “sex sells” aspect, which I subscribe to (though only for the articles), there is the undeniable fact that the novel takes place in the these modern times as opposed to, say, 1879.
Finally, Kyrie O’Connor deserves your congratulations as well! Okay, maybe not for anything specific. But she was there last night (and was quite funny as well), and I can’t very well leave her admirable blog out of today’s linkfest, can I? Not with that horribly anemic excuse for a “Links” list that I offer around here. [Okay, I admit that visiting Tom’s site has made me feel a little inferior. It’ll pass.]
Fanny Roborat
36 comments
LeRoy
March 10, 2006 at 7:11 pm
1NOW, I’ll buy the book!
Linkmeister
March 10, 2006 at 7:39 pm
2Tom doesn’t have quite the stable of frequent commenters you’ve got, so you’re ahead of him there, Adam.
Of course, he just enabled comments a few weeks ago, so…
Steve
March 10, 2006 at 8:40 pm
3Hey, is there a book tour in the offing? Or did I miss it?
There’s a great indie bookstore, The Bookworks, in Del Mar, California, that’d probably have you down for a reading/author appearance.
David
March 10, 2006 at 9:27 pm
45 month old, by the way. Not 5 year old.
Adam Felber
March 10, 2006 at 10:26 pm
5oops - thanks David. Will fix…
Steve - There IS a book tour in the offing. This fall. I don’t know much else about it yet, but coming to Del Mar sounds like a great idea.
SeattleDan
March 10, 2006 at 10:38 pm
6Seattle is nice,too,Adam. Especially in the summer. I know of a bookstore that would be very happy to host you here.
Murray
March 10, 2006 at 11:45 pm
7Hey! I expect that the book tour will begin on Sept 2 in Purcell PA. Bring your copies, or buy them here!!!!
BTW, Hoffa is buried right next to the Sidewinder and 737 engine remains of flight 93 that crashed to earth about 40 miles east of Shanksville on 9/11. (You can inspect both while getting your book signed on Sept 2).
dee
March 11, 2006 at 12:35 am
8Silly Murray. Hoffa is buried IN the foundation of the Renaissance Center in Detroit. A Union man to the end — a TEAMSTER, by God, not a member of some candy-assed “guild”. After visiting their website I have visions of Roy Blount, Judy Blume and Mary Higgins Clark wearing short pants and striped stockings while welcoming Dorothy to Oz.
cooper
March 11, 2006 at 10:04 am
9Okay, Adam, I put a new battery in the walkman, tuned to WFAE (it never leaves that station, actually) and primed for laughs beginning @ 11:00 AM sharp. You’re a good sport to step up to the mike like that, plus it’s a joy to hear your mind in action! Can’t wait.
cooper
March 11, 2006 at 10:10 am
10Too bad this guy couldn’t rot in prison for another 20 years. Life isn’t fair.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/11/milosovic/index.html
cooper
March 11, 2006 at 10:59 am
11Okay, this makes 3 in a row, so I’ll stop here for a while. In surfing around I came across this rather lengthy article by Paul Pillar, ex CIA senior analyst for the the Near East and South Asia, that the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq primarily to stir up the region - to get a new dynamic perculating and see if a more democratic momentum would emerge. A lab experiment, in other words. America in their gut figured Bush was lying, but lying because of some secret knowledge of nefarious deeds, that a well thought out plan would come out in the end and that the world would be a better place for it. Sorry folks, we fucked up; we trusted him! No plan, just throw it up in the air and see how it lands. For your consideration…
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060301faessay85202-p0/paul-r-pillar/in telligence-policy-and-the-war-in-iraq.html
siobhan
March 11, 2006 at 11:24 am
12Three in a row? We’re gonna have to start calling you CCCCooper.
Still, glad you took the risk of posting 3; the last was a really interesting read.
Sharon
March 11, 2006 at 1:31 pm
13Thanks for the article in Foreign Affairs, cooper. I only scanned the first page, but I will read the whole thing this weekend.
As a proud member of the reality-based community, I know that reality will always win out in the end over superstition and “faith,” but in the meantime we’re all going to have to live through the consequences of the actions of the unreality-based people who are running things.
Sometimes I wonder if any of these people ever took a physics or chemistry class. I wonder if they did the experiment where you pray over a block of wood on an inclined plane to see if you can change its coefficient of friction.
hedera
March 11, 2006 at 7:44 pm
14I just read the entire Foreign Affairs article; it didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t already suspected, but it’s depressing to discover that all your dark suspicions of the administration are not only true, but understated. Thanks for the link, cooper.
I’d also mention the article, in last week’s Economist, on Mr. Wolfowitz’ new gig at the World Bank. Here’s an excerpt - I won’t give a link because the site requires a paid subscription:
Does this sound like something we’ve heard before? Does the leopard change his spots? The Economist thinks Mr. Wolfowitz’ publicized drive against corruption is meant more to look impressive to Congress than actually to help any of the countries he’s supposed to be helping. I wonder if he’s trying to make the point that, if all countries are too corrupt to lend development funds to, there’s no reason for the World Bank to exist. Surely the World Bank is something the neocons dislike??
The worst thing about the PNAC people is the way they drive you toward conspiracy theories…
Linkmeister
March 11, 2006 at 10:01 pm
15hedera and others, you might like this T-shirt; the legend reads something like “I deeply resent this administration turning me into a nutbar conspiracy theorist.” Click the “larger” button to read the actual text.
hedera
March 11, 2006 at 10:09 pm
16Excellent T-shirt, Linkmeister; if only it weren’t bright yellow I might buy it, but I can’t stand yellow clothes…
cooper
March 11, 2006 at 11:44 pm
17hedera, “The worst thing about the PNAC people is the way they drive you toward conspiracy theories…” No, that’s not the worst; to realize that these are not mere theories - that’s worse.
Linkmeister
March 12, 2006 at 1:18 am
18hedera, back up a page to this one; it comes in pink, lime, gray, and other colors.
Sharon
March 12, 2006 at 3:08 pm
19I like it! This will go along nicely with my “radical militant librarian” gear.
cooper
March 12, 2006 at 5:13 pm
20This is my first spring with FA, but I can see the fever has struck! That or March Madness. Me? Well it was 80F+ this afternoon (3/12, who could believe that?) and with Spring Break at my son’s High School coming in less than 2 weeks, I thought I’d relinquish this year’s “Whitest White Boy in Hylton Head” honorific that I am normally awarded. I laid in our chaise lounge chair, sprayed on the spf 15, began the annual browning process. Between naps, I finished a good article in Rolling Stone about Bush’s much ballyhooed $15 billion foreign aid package that made big headlines several years ago. Of course, the leadership was populated with business suits and campaign contributors, built from the ground up with little participation by anyone with international aid experience. It focuses it’s effort in countries that follow the Administration’s rather arcane rubric for economic development and is most eager to participate in projects of it’s own connivance - usually roads, airports, industrial construction - projects that are nice to have, but not necessarily what that country needs the most. Very small percentages go into health care or education. The bottom line is that US foreign aid has actually decreased from what it was before and less money is going to the lower rung of the society. Anyone surprised by this?
dave
March 12, 2006 at 7:30 pm
21Adam,
Personal appearances in small bookstores are very nice and all but any chance that your book tour will take you to the set of Oprah, the Daily Show, or the like? I would love to see that happen.
Also, I forget if you already mentioned this but does it help you in any way if we preorder the book rather than wait for Maureen Corrigan’s review?
hedera
March 12, 2006 at 8:35 pm
22Ah, very nice, Linkmeister, I see it comes in pink and even gray with blue, much easier on the eyes. I may even like the other motto (”side/side”) better.
dee
March 12, 2006 at 10:58 pm
23Hahahaha “Schrodinger’s Ball” as an Oprah Book Club Selection.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
cooper
March 13, 2006 at 12:05 am
24Adam, don’t go on Oprah, man! After James Frey, she’ll rip you apart like the Ottumwa, Iowa phone book.
Dave D
March 13, 2006 at 9:06 am
25America in their gut figured Bush was lying, but lying because of some secret knowledge of nefarious deeds, that a well thought out plan would come out in the end and that the world would be a better place for it. Sorry folks, we fucked up; we trusted him!
What’s with this “we” shit cooper?
Mary
March 13, 2006 at 10:22 am
26Just a few Monday moaning comments:
1) Dee is right- Hoffa has to be in the Ren Cen foundations. That or in I 275.
2) Murray- as an ex-GR boy, you should have known Hoffa would never leave the state.
3 Dave- are you expecting our Adam to out do Tom Cruise’s little couch jumping exhibition?
4) Dave D- I think cooper was using “we” to refer to the US. I’m sure he doesn’t think any of *us* voted for the GDSALSOS.
5) Cooper- my new great-nephew was just named after you: Cooper Henry Talsnes Dahl. He is a new PA resident
6) Way to go Adam!!! That was a heck of a win this week. Great show.
Murray
March 13, 2006 at 11:05 am
27Mary, the remains are a bit old, maybe it’s Amelia Erheart.
GDSALSOS, I like that, I think that will be W’s moniker from now on.
cooper
March 13, 2006 at 11:47 am
28David D, my apologies. I do, from time to time, balance precariously on the fence between Gonzo and talking in tongues. I just had this image of Dick Cheney superimposed on the “Animal House” set, leaning on the battered Lincoln Continental, and telling American that “you fucked up…”.
Mary, that’s what I like about this group. I can lapse into the conversational “we” and the regulars pick right up on it. Oh, and Mary, what a grand name that is for a lad! But rest assured, whatever name the parents chose to call him, his friends will make up an unflattering moniker to mash the buttons of all loved ones. For instance, my son’s name is Adam, just like our buddy Mr. Felber, and a name that does not really lend itself to shortening or nicknames - one of the reasons we liked it. Of course, by the 2nd grade, he was being refered to as “A damn”. What can you do?
Sharon
March 13, 2006 at 3:40 pm
29O wise and wonderful Felbernauts, I have a favor to ask of y’all. I’m writing a paper on censorship for one of my library classes, and I’d like to contrast Slaughterhouse-Five (arguably anti-war) with a book that was censored, or at least challenged, on the grounds of being “pro-war” or “glorifying war.” But I haven’t been able to find any. Can anyone here give me any leads? Surely this has happened at least once somewhere in Vermont or Berkeley?
Pete IVDL
March 13, 2006 at 5:40 pm
30I sure can’t, Sharon, but I loved the book and the film. One of my absolute, utter, favourite places to visit is Tralfamadore! Never forgotten it. Ever.
Tom in Santa Clara
March 13, 2006 at 9:10 pm
31Adam, I for one have loved hearing you on WWDTM all these weekends!
And since I’ve subscribed to the podcasts, I’ve got them all on my little iPod, which will come in handy when I depart for that island nation and native land of Sue (that would be England) in a couple of weeks for a little vacation! You can tell Peter and Carl and Kyrie and Roy and Charlie and Paula and whoever else is on the show that one of the shows biggest fans will be listening as I cross the pond in a large pressurized metal tube manufactured by Boeing! Oh, and the airline I’m flying one is one that doesn’t put a lot of paint on their planes, just a nice tasteful red/white/blue stripe down the side!
And please give the lovely Jeanne a hug from me…we met at the Pacific Grove recording!
Mary
March 14, 2006 at 2:02 pm
32Sharon - now there is an interesting question. I can’t recall a book being censored because it was pro-war. Sexually suggestive, anti-war, “pro” homosexuality, profane language…. I can recall books being censored for the above but not “pro-war”. But then, I do suffer from CRS. (sigh)
Sharon
March 14, 2006 at 3:22 pm
33To be perfectly accurate, Slaughterhouse-Five was probably never censored for being “anti-war” per se, but my suspicion is that the reasons given were just a smokescreen. Surely Robin Moore’s “The Green Berets” had as much profanity in it as S-5 (I can’t say, ’cause I never read it), but it’s not listed in “100 Banned Books.”
ice weasel
March 14, 2006 at 8:15 pm
34psssssssst, “felberpalooza”
just sayin’
(check your email murray)
hedera
March 14, 2006 at 11:16 pm
35Mary’s right. This is the New-Nited States of Merka. We think war is great and would never censor any book for being in favor of war…
Katie
March 15, 2006 at 11:23 pm
36Adam -
Advanced warning for Chicago is good! One of these times, if I read it pre-show (instead of post), I’ll hop a plane down and buy you a round or 2 of Maker’s Mark to either a. celebrate another stunning win; or b. console the loss. I’m just sayin’.
Katie
p.s. Is it September yet?!