happy new year2003 time capsules
-The Critics Critiqued: Their nastiest insults, most insightful reviews, and oddest fixations this year.
-Fimoculous names his favorite blogs of 2003 and adds more to his already-large round-up of 2003's "year in review" lists.
-The Washington Post lists what's IN and OUT (recommended by Amy's Robot)
-Yahoo has collected "the most popular Ask Yahoo! questions of 2003." The times are changing: "Are soy candles really better than wax candles?"
-the Guardian looks back on 2003's literary happenings
more, literature
-The Paris Review chooses its new editor
-The Chronicle announces the winners of its First Annual Awards for Self-Consciously Provocative MLA Paper Titles (aka the Provokies).
-Return of the Reluctant can help you decide which lit. award you should be shooting for; "if you have a sweeping epic, then the Pulitzer's your best bet."
-France lifts its ban on book commercials
-"Can books, without much explanation, without being read even, say something?"
-David Foster Wallace on irony
more, film and music
-Elliot Smith may have been murdered
-"Morrissey is Debbie Harry at +8% pitch & tempo."
-Bollywood FAQs
-Paltrow's Sylvia "is not the fun, humorous woman she knew."
more, media
-a wonderful collection of Guardian articles on difficult art forms
-the LA Weekly profiles Benedikt Taschen of Tachen Books
-10 Ads Americans Won't See. This is the only time in recent memory I'm glad to be American. From a description of ad no.3: "He chops up the bloody grey matter with a credit card and snorts the bloody pulp."
-If you're looking to read new or different magazines this year and want some suggestions, consult kottke's reader comments.
other
-The Un-Ethicist, by Miguel Cohen, brother of the Ethicist
-for those who love infographics: a collection
-how to tell if a Japanese restaurant is really Japanese: "Firstly, don't trust any Japanese restaurants that use the typeface called Wonton."
-On naming prescription drugs: "The harder the tonality of the name, the more efficacious the product in the mind of the physician and the end user."
-The Random URL game: "Click and a random word is culled from our 3 million word online dictionary, a .com is added and then...?" Blogs have already been playing this game for some time -- with dates, animals, letters, and colors. Here's an even lazier way to play the game. Or -- mutate the game.