A few brief bits as I read the paper this afternoon, from the NEW YORK TIMES*:
* The piece about how reading fiction is good for your brain. You’re welcome…
* The piece about Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s new book, Why Nations Fail, which gives a new way to look at what makes a country rich. It’s helpful to refer to this as part of the justification for the current work going online, as well as how it affects a new side project I’ve been working on…
…and no, I’m not going to go into the new work here. I have a thing about that; the last few times I discussed projects in their embryonic stages, every possible disaster that could have befallen them knocked them offline. Years ago, I did a panel at what would eventually become known as The Fest for Beatles Fans, where I was encouraged to read the opening of a work in progress that had John Lennon growing up in a Liverpool that had seen Operation Sea Lion. Soon after the preview, every potential distraction hit me and my ability to commit to the work like taking a shotgun to the face from seven feet away; not a pretty sight, to put a point on it, and the work ended up needing to be abandoned.
So for now, all I have to offer is tantalizing hints until the new piece gets ready to roll out. And if you see me at The Fest this upcoming weekend, no matter how many times you make me sit through your rendition of “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number),” I will say nothing about the new works.
You want to talk about the stuff that did get published, though, just ask…
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*Yes, I read the TIMES, without apology. I read some of the others on occasion, when necessary, but a whole combination of upbringing/tradition and expectations keeps me a reader here. In different times, I might have migrated over to the WALL STREET JOURNAL as I got older, but have you seen them lately? There’s a few unpleasant utterances you can make at the prospect of becoming a reader of that record now…
James Ryan 