Friday Link Love

The Lyall Links:

I've been a fan of New York Times London correspondent Sarah Lyall for a long time. Her recent piece, about President Obama's visit to London this week, was as entertaining as ever. (Her piece about the royal wedding was also excellent.)

I can actually remember the piece that made me take notice of Lyall way back in 1998. It was this obituary of Sir Anthony Glyn, an author known for "spirit and diversity." It was the first time I'd been so entertained by an obit, and it led to my increasing interest in reading obituaries, especially those written by that master, the sadly departed Robert McG. Thomas, Jr. (Although he is gone, his best efforts were collected into an edition, 52 McGs.)

The Carrington Links:

This week's most fascinating obituary was that of Leonora Carrington, British surrealist painter, sculptor and writer who lived much of her long life in Mexico. Thanks to Gina Hyams for linking the extensive Guardian obit, which includes many great details, including that during WWII, Carrington's family sent her nanny to Spain in a submarine to fetch her home! There was a New York Times obit today that was also interesting though not as comprehensive (and not written by a cousin of Carrington's, as the Guardian obit is). The image above is one of Carrington's.

The Grammatical Link:

As one who is perhaps a bit too over-fond of em dashes, I had to appreciate this screed against their overuse in Slate earlier this week. I have to admit, though, that the writer's attempt to use em dashes at every opportunity to prove her point reminded me of when I was in high school. In a protest against what we considered William Faulkner's excessively long sentences, we all attempted to answer our exam essay question on Intruder in the Dust in a single sentence. It's been a long time since that happened, but I suspect we used a few too many em dashes then, along with more semi-colons than any of us have probably used in anything since!

And on that note, Happy Long Weekend!

Friday Link Love

Well, that was nerve-wracking! Blogger was down for almost 24 hours, and yesterday's post plus any comments after early Weds. afternoon vanished into the ether! I am relieved that I was able to cut and paste yesterday's chicken post from an old screen shot. In any case, the delay threw me off. Please, Blogger, keep working!

Anyway, crisis averted for the moment, and on to today's links:

DFW Links:

Since his posthumous unfinished novel, The Pale King, came out last month, there's been a lot of new press about David Foster Wallace recently. (For those new to this blog, my own connection to Dave is explained here.) I haven't read the novel yet, but there were two pieces I found especially interesting.

One was this thoughtful essay in The Awl by Maria Bustillos who went through Dave's personal library, now in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and wrote about all the self-help books she found there: "Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library."

The other is a rare interview with Dave's widow, Karen Green. She stays out of the press, mostly, but she spoke to The Guardian around the time of the release of the novel.

A more cheerful literary link:

Although I've only read a few of the essays in Elif Batuman's book The Possessed, I've decided that she's such an entertaining writer that I'd read what she wrote no matter what it was about. I loved this essay in the Guardian. It got attention when it first came out because of the part where she asks Jonathan Franzen whether he has any weed, but that's only a small part of why I liked it: "Life after a bestseller"

From Possessed to Possession:

Since I'm (sort of) on the subject, I found myself at lunch the other day with a bunch of young scholars talking about how much they loved what they discovered in the archives. So, it was to my astonishment that I brought up A.S. Byatt's book Possession only to discover that none of them had read it! It's been more than 20 years since Possession was first published, and my first read of it still remains one of my most satisfying reading experiences ever. Byatt can be hit or miss, but Possession is worth all the praise heaped upon it back when it was published and won the Booker Prize. I've heard mixed things about Byatt's newest, The Children's Book (which I bought in nice compact form in India in January), but I'm still going to give it a try.

The Delicious:

I haven't made too many things from Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipes for Health" in the NY Times, but this week's spring vegetable recipes looked great.

I'm particularly intrigued by the recipe for Asparagus with Green Garlic and the one for Green Garlic, Potato and Leek Soup.

(Other green garlic recipes can be found on this very blog:
Spinach and Green Garlic Soup and Green Garlic and Chive Souffle, both delicious!)

Today's photo is courtesy of a shop in the Greater Kailash N-Block Market in Delhi. I don't think the cat was for sale.

Friday Link Love

Fridays are going to be my roundup day, with some links of things I found interesting during the week.

This week's links are divided into categories.

The Political

This is clearly not a political blog, but given the news this week, I'm going to include 2 pieces.

"The Lies They Tell Us" is a Foreign Policy article about Pakistan, which includes a discussion with Sohaib Athar, the Pakistani IT consultant and coffee shop owner in Abbottabad who gained instant fame for becoming "the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it," gaining more than 100,000 Twitter followers as a result. Athar has posted an FAQ on his site from all the many (many) questions he's been getting on Twitter.

The other piece is Megan McArdle's post about the fake Martin Luther King quotation that flew through cyberspace in the wake of bin Laden's death. I'm not much of a McArdle fan--I don't agree with her politically and find her generally irritating--but I thought this was interesting, and given that she was the person who discovered the quote was fake (and has the platform to talk about it), it seemed fitting to let her describe it. A less thorough analysis was in a blog in the Christian Science Monitor as well.

The Sad:

Derek Miller was a writer, blogger, musician (and much more) from Vancouver who died of cancer at 41 earlier this week. In his blog, he wrote a last post, his own obituary: The Last Post. It is lucid, thoughtful and very sad. The Vancouver Sun also published a tribute to him.

The Uplifting:

I'm a recent convert to The Rumpus' advice column, Dear Sugar, but I think she is very wise and knows of which she writes. Also, while reading this column, I realized that I think I know who she is in real life. (I've had a few clues, but only while reading this column did it suddenly make sense.) Still, Sugar is Sugar as well as her real self, so I will let her continue to be that, especially in case I am wrong. Dear Sugar: The Future Has an Ancient Heart or, a graduation speech for English majors.

The Delicious:

I am always a sucker for cheese biscuits, and these look particularly yummy. Not sure when I will have the occasion to make them, but I hope it will be soon. Cheese Biscuits from Food52. There will be more about Food 52 next week.

The Overdue:

In past years, I have posted the links of all of the other bloggers participating in the blogathon on my own blog, but I think the list is actually too long to do that this year--nearly 200 bloggers and more than 200 blogs! (Some people are very ambitious, blogging every day in multiple blogs--I can't even imagine!) Thankfully, Michelle Rafter has the list up, and so I will link it here and encourage you to check out some of the many other interesting bloggers posting daily this month. I certainly plan to!

The 2011 Blogathon Blogroll

Happy Friday!

P.S. If you're wondering about the above photo, I've decided to also use the Friday posts to post random photos I like but have no other place to put. The photo above, as some might know, was taken inside the sculpture "Cloud Gate," otherwise known as "The Bean" in Millenium Park in Chicago.