NightBlogger

Louis Bayard
Salon
Casual observers might be excused for thinking of Gore Vidal in posthumous terms. A twilight pall suffused his most recent memoir, “Point-to-Point Navigation,” which described the death of Vidal’s longtime companion even as it ladled out retribution against longtime enemies. Many of those enemies have likewise passed on, and in recent appearances, Vidal has had to squeeze his proud, patrician figure into a wheelchair.

The old lion may be enfeebled, but he still has teeth. Doubters are referred to Deborah Solomon’s recent New York Times Magazine interview, in which Vidal responded to the question “Were you chaste?” with a line that Groucho Marx might have coveted — “Chased by whom?” — and succinctly described his feelings on the death of William F. Buckley: “I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred. More

Photo reinn
Laura Miller
“We can talk all we want about being brand-proof,” Walker writes, “but our behavior tells a different story.” Experimental subjects presented with two identical glasses of Coca-Cola, one labeled as such and the other presented as a mystery rival brand, routinely picked the one they thought was Coke as the better-tasting soda. Citing one cunningly designed study after another, Walker presents ample proof that we are only kidding ourselves if we believe we’re impervious to the multibillion-dollar marketing industry.

Nevertheless, we are not “obsessed” with consumption, as many critics claim. As Walker sees it, Americans prefer not to ruminate on that particular subject, even as we shop and spend our little hearts out. “To qualify as obsessed we’d have to really think about why we buy what we buy,” Walker writes, instead of just telling ourselves that we, unlike the rest of the sheep, purchase things for purely rational, utilitarian reasons like price, quality and convenience. More

Photo Courtesy of Patrick Woodward

This from Richard at planetebook DOTcom:

I’m looking at publishing another version of our eBooks for the Apple iPhone and iTouch. As well as helping us to further spread the use of our books…I’m based in Australia and we don’t have the iPhone here yet, so I’m looking for people already using the iPhone/iTouch to help me out a little to finalize the book design. If you’re keen and would like to help to get the design right, please add your details here or or email me at richardatplanetebook.com.

Richard’s entry was on March 18, 2008 at 3:38 am.