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Stuff of dreams. Because I’d been dreaming about googling this: Gene Wilder is the “Young Frankenstein” actor, b. 1933. (Here’s the version of “Alice in Wonderland” where he sings “Beautiful Soup.”) Billy Wilder is the writer of “Some Like it Hot,” b. 1906. (Also “Double Indemnity,” “The Seven Year Itch,” and “Stalag 17.”) Thornton Wilder […]

Awesome geekiness of geeky awesomeness. Some folks playing a live-action role-playing game put together a stone golem suit out of foam mattresses, glue sticks, and paint. Click here for a short video. It’s the kind of thing that makes me proud to be a nerd, and proud to know others of such kind. (via BoingBoing.)

Buenos Aires. The city of Buenos Aires will pay homage to the writer Jorge Borges (“The Aleph”) from the twentieth anniversary of his death, in June, to his birthday in August. He would have liked that, I think. “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Borges.

Book Review. The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Here’s a thought: we have moved out of the era where historians and horror movie fans are two entirely different sets of people — there’s enough overlap to justify this book, after all. The plot (which successfully pulls off almost as many stories-within-stories as The Arabian Nights) involves

More good poems… If you’re interested, check out Eric Campbell’s poem “Navigating in the Dark” here.

Later this month… May 25th is Towel Day, a tribute to author Douglas Adams, who died in 2001. Fans carry towels throughout the day. From the website’s FAQ: “Should I really carry a towel all day? It might be embarrassing! “Yes, you should really carry a towel with you all day. You might get teased

Gadgets for the Lazy. Click here (if you can manage it) for: ice cream cone rotators bedside computers shoe mops electric fly swatters hot dog toasters (via wired.com.)

Easily amused. I’m looking at a picture of a road, thinking, “I’d love to drive down that…It’s so gorgeous,” when I realize that the caption says, “The road to St. Ives (Cornwall, England).” Hey, I’m an American. I don’t always realize that people don’t just make this stuff up. As I was going to St

More poetry. Just Listenby Peter Johnson I sit by the window and watch a great mythological bird go down in flames. In fact, it’s a kite the neighborhood troublemaker has set on fire. Twenty-one and still living at home, deciding when to cut through a screen and chop us into little pieces. “He wouldn’t hurt

On this date… Meme via Hythia. I’m supposed to search Google for the date of my birth and come up with some births, some deaths, and some interesting facts. Births: 1852 – Calamity Jane, American Wild West performer (d. 1903)1881 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French palaeontologist and philosopher (d. 1955) Deaths: 1873 – David