Month: April 2003

This is mostly aimed at one person in particular, but the lessons are universal, so pay attention kids.
When I started Cornell, part of orientation week was a little 30 minute wowfest called “Travelers Of The Electronic Highway”, mostly going over things kids need to know about the Cornell network. Having been an employee for 3 months at this point, it was all old hat. However, there was definitely a point to it – there were lots of kids who had no idea, and it was worthwhile for them.
Now, there’s a situation going on involving the CTC kids and one angry Canadian – and some basic life lessons need to be repeated here for the sake of everyone’s sanity. You may already know these, but they’re definitely worth repeating for those of you who are new to everything.

So apparently there’s this new hot-shit author named James Frey. Salon did this big piece on him a week or so ago, and here’s why I called him “hot-shit”:
Don’t even get him started on Dave Eggers. “A book that I thought was mediocre was being hailed as the best book written by the best writer of my generation. Fuck that. And fuck him and fuck anybody who says that. I don’t give a fuck what they think about me. I’m going to try to write the best book of my generation and I’m going to try to be the best writer.”
And that was just appetizers. Before he was done, Frey had revealed that the initials tattooed on his left arm stand for “Fuck the Bullshit It’s Time to Throw Down; that the message in front of his iMac reads: “A page a day. Anything less is unacceptable you punk-ass-bitch-motherfucker. Anything less is unacceptable.”; that his wife calls him a savage “because I eat with my hands. Because my best friends are my dogs. And I like pit bulls. And N.W.A. And I love boxing. Writers aren’t like that anymore. They’re all these guys who have fucking master’s degrees and are so ‘sophisticated’ and ‘educated’ and … well, I’m not a guy with a master’s degree … I can write big fat books, but I’m not an effete little guy.”
So he’s the literary version of Eminem, I guess.
Thank god for Neal Pollack taking him down a peg.
I’d quote Neal Pollack’s blog entry, but it would probably get me one of those email from a respectable (older) adult who thinks there’s too much cursing on this site as there is. Just click through and read. It’s worth it. Trust me.
(Thanks to Colin for the link!)

The TWOP 24 Michelle Interview
Television Without Pity‘s 24 recapper, Gustave, had the pleasure of doing a telephone interview with Reiko “Michelle” Aylesworth a few days ago, and for all the 24 nuts out there, it’s definitely worth reading.
Lots of amusing anecdotes and prodding questions – and it turns out that Fox WAS going for a lesbian angle between Michelle and Carrie, but they changed it at the last minute. How…unlike Fox!