A look back on Pottermania...

Yes, now that I've read the book, I'm reading reviews and articles about the book. From The New York Times:

[T]he Harry Potter craze was not manufactured by a media conglomerate. Its initiating publisher in England, Bloomsbury, is a stand-alone company, as is Scholastic, the publisher that presciently acquired the American rights. When Volume I, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," was published in America in September 1998, its first printing was 35,000, with a promotional budget of $100,000. That's above average by the standards of children's-book publishing but a mere drop in the media maelstrom.

The book's success bubbled up spontaneously from below, propelled by kids' word of mouth, rather than being imposed by synergistic browbeating from above. At first adults didn't get what was happening. The New York Times, for instance, did not review the first "Harry" until five months after its publication. By that time, "Sorcerer's Stone" had been on the Times's fiction best-seller list for 14 weeks — well past the three-week record for a young readers' book on the list, set by E. B. White with "Charlotte's Web" in 1952.

Sunday newspaper binge

An article in the WSJ talks about how technology is affecting religious observance. From timers that turn the lights and oven on and off on the Sabbath, to streaming-vid rituals, to IMing with Rabbis, to prayer emails. The Vatican has issued a warning about the dangers of online confession (security concerns).

Also in the WSJ,

[T]hese days, Zondervan/HarperCollins is also dealing with a self-made dilemma that would challenge Solomon: how to promote simultaneously both the most beloved literal translation of the Bible, the New International Version (NIV), and the most polarizing new rendering, the gender-adjusted Today's New International Version (TNIV).

The closeness of the acronyms is part of the story: In business terms, it's somewhat akin to trying to sell New Coke and traditional Coke to the same audience. And we know what happened to New Coke. ( Read more... )

Watching The Big Chill

"Last time I spoke with Alex, we had a fight. I yelled at him."
"That's probably why he killed himself."
- Meg and Nick

"The offices were very clean, and the clients were only raping the land, and then, of course, there was the money. El Greedo strikes again."
- Meg explaining why she left the Philadelphia Public Defender's Office for real estate law.

"Nobody said it was going to be fun - at least nobody said it to me."
- Richard explaining why he thought Alex couldn't handle life.
( Read more... )

"What, nobody thinks they're a bad person. I'm not even claiming that people always think they're doing the right thing. They may know that they're doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think there's a good reason for doing it. They almost always think that it will turn out for the best in the end. And even if it just it turns out best for them, cause by definition what's best for them is what's best."
"Mm-hm"
"Now look. In addition, you instantly come up against the question of style. My style may be too, uh, direct. Perhaps given my style, I seem more nakedly opportunistic or jerky or uh...what was the other thing?"
"Uh, manipulative?"
"Whatever. Really all that's happening is that I'm trying to get what I want. Which is what everyone else does, only their styles are so warm or charming or sincere or otherwise phoney that you don't realize they're just trying to get what they want. So you see, my transparent efforts are in a way much more honest and admirable."
"Why is it what you just said strike me as a massive rationalization?"
- Michael and Sam

"Does the suit come with the machete?"
- Harold to Sam, re: a scene on his TV show

More Big Chill

( Rant about Karen's story arc )

More newspaper binge

A thief walked out of The Alexis Hotel with a $40,000 Chihuly bowl "the size of a 36-inch TV".

The annual Play safe in summer article.

"Week In Review" has an article on the problems society has with everyone pursuing their varying forms of happiness. There's also an article debunking various Revolutionary myths.

NYT also has an article on Online Dating.

I like some of their business columns. One today is on escaping from a home office. Another, on fatherhood, mentions Michael Zorek, who I met through a Bruce mailing list. There's also an article on executives using needlework to relax.

More newspaper stuff

The Boston Globe has an article on a study about demographics of couples who've gotten Civil Unions. Quote: The University of Vermont study found same-sex couples in civil unions were far more likely than the general population to describe their religious beliefs as ''spiritual,'' and less likely to identify with the religion they were raised in. The dropoff for Catholics was particularly pronounced. While more than 30 percent of gay and lesbians who participated in the Vermont study were raised Catholic, less than 6 percent continued in adulthood to identify with the religion.

Another article is about how Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is often blamed for symptoms caused by less-serious RSIs.