'The Book is Like a Hammer'

James Gleick, who was involved on the Authors Guild's side of a 2005 lawsuit the Guild filed against Google for scanning millions of out-of-print books and making the text searchable on the Internet, opines in the NY Times on the future of the book:

"As a technology, the book is like a hammer. That is to say, it is perfect: a tool ideally suited to its task. Hammers can be tweaked and varied but will never go obsolete. Even when builders pound nails by the thousand with pneumatic nail guns, every household needs a hammer. Likewise, the bicycle is alive and well. It was invented in a world without automobiles, and for speed and range it was quickly surpassed by motorcycles and all kinds of powered scooters. But there is nothing quaint about bicycles. They outsell cars."

— TJ Sullivan in LA

'Growing The Pie'

After the extreme highs of election night, and the extreme lows of Wall Street … after watching housing values soar far beyond the wildest dreams of homeowners, then seeing many of them foreclosed upon ... after bracing ourselves for the approach of $5-per-gallon gasoline, only to witness its sudden retreat to less than $2 a gallon ... after drinking more water to be healthy, then learning that the plastic bottles from which we drink it might contain hazardous chemicals ... after all of that, and more, it's likely I'm not the only one who believes what this nation needs now is pie.

Apple pie. Pumpkin pie. Pecan pie.

President-elect Barack Obama appeared to tap a similar sentiment during today's pre-holiday press conference, at which he said: "... I've tried to bring together the best economic minds, people who don't always agree with each other but who all share a commitment to make sure we're growing the pie …"

Yes! By all means! Grow the pie!

For too long our nation has been trying to "make the pie higher." But now the time has come to grow the pie, to fetch it down from the lofty windowsill of the wealthy, and put it within the reach of all on the kitchen table of democracy.

This year we can be thankful for whatever size slice we have, but especially for the hope of a bigger pie to come.

Happy Thanksgiving!

— TJ Sullivan

Cross posted at LA Observed

The 2008 LA Auto Show

Photos by TJ Sullivan - Click to view photo index

I grew up in Detroit. I have the disease.

My first bout with it involved a 1977 Chevy Camaro that I purchased for a mere $100, an investment that was soon dwarfed by the cost of the Bondo required to patch the rust holes in the fenders, not to mention the spray paint that, for the first time in years, made the car one solid color — primer red. There were additional expenses — the carburetor that had to be rebuilt, and the valve cover gasket I had to replace. Then there was the exhaust manifold and muffler, and the alternator, and the radiator, and the hole in the floor on the passenger side, and the horn, and the plugs, and the battery ... My brother and I split entire summers between the restaurant where we waited tables, and the cars under which we slaved and slept.

Determined as I was to distance myself from the car-killer curse suffered by my father, my first car still became my first money pit. However, unlike my father, who took new cars and drove them until the wheels fell off (OK, the wheels actually fell off only one of the cars he owned), I was investing in an education. Every dollar I put into that beat-up old Camaro was more than matched in blood and sweat. And in return I received invaluable knowledge, as well as the ability to recognize any crooked auto repairman seconds after he suggests an unnecessary repair. But with this knowledge also came an affliction that is difficult to describe. And so, each year, I pay a visit to the Auto Show alone.

Despite the anticipation going in, most times I leave feeling drained and depressed. (The Big Three lost my attention about the time Ford transformed the Mustang into a hatchback.) This year was mostly more of the same in that regard, except for the Chevrolet Camaro concept car, a version of which is set to hit assembly lines in 2009, and showrooms in the 2010 model year — provided there's still a GM assembly line up and running next year. Not that I'll be in the market for one, but I might pretend long enough to take a test drive.

I took the camera along to the show on Saturday and put the photos together in the video slide show above. [The stills are online at this link].

* And if you go ... be sure to check out the Caraoke that VW set up inside a 2009 Beetle. It's posting videos directly to YouTube throughout the show and some of them are pretty damn funny.

— TJ Sullivan

* Crossposted at LA Observed.

Line For Free Groceries A Quarter-Mile Long

The blog LA NOW reports that thousands lined up today in Los Angeles for free groceries and Thanksgiving meals.

This from LA NOW:

In a sign of how strained families are just to put food on the table, more than 1,000 people are lined up today for bags of groceries at Montebello Park. The single-file line is about a quarter-mile long, and some families have been waiting since 7 a.m.

The post was published at 12:31 PM.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Prop 8 Was Not Just Another Issue

A couple weeks ago I posted photos of a Prop 8 protest without comment.

The photos spoke for themselves. They did one of the things journalists are supposed to do. They gave voice to the voiceless.

Of course, some will disagree with the characterization of the losing side as voiceless. Some will say what they've been saying to me in anonymous blog comments and in e-mails, that the time for voices to be heard has passed, that the voters have spoken and more than half of them said "yes" on Prop 8. Some will view this as just another ballot issue, and declare anyone who dares to express dissent little more than a sore loser.

But, this was not just another ballot issue. This wasn't about fixing an injustice, nor was it about closing some legal loophole that was costing taxpayers money.

This was and continues to be about taking away rights, civil rights, and for those whose rights were taken away to remain silent now would equal acceptance for generations to come, not just here in California, but in the states that will surely seek to mimic us.

Voters aren't always right. Courts aren't always right. Who now, for example, would dispute that the US Supreme Court was flat wrong in 1896 when it upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson? Yet, as obvious an abomination as that ruling is today, it took our nation 58 years to undo it, then another 10 years to get the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act passed in the mid '60s.

Without question, it's a mistake to think of Prop 8 as just another ballot item. This is about procedural fairness in law, and protection from discrimination. (Note the recent eHarmony settlement).

Both sides praised Wednesday's announcement that the Supreme Court in San Francisco has decided to hear arguments on the validity of Prop 8. But, considering how that court has ruled before, and the legal question to be considered, it's hard to imagine anything but an invalidation of the proposition.

Although Keith Olbermann [see inset] expressed a similar point of view before the court made its decision to hear the matter, it's hard to imagine his mind has changed. We can only hope more people in Olbermann's position speak loudly and often about this issue.

As Olbermann points out, supporting Prop 8 is impossible to reconcile with the credo "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."


— TJ Sullivan

To Burn, Or Not To Burn ... NOT!

Photo from BBC

Hat tip to Publishers Lunch for pointing out today's story on THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA, Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novel, which the author asked be burned following his death, which occurred in 1977.

Nabokov's son, Dmitri, who is publishing the work (set for release in 2009), speaks out for the first time about the book's contents.

Via The Independent:

He described it as "an extraordinarily original work" which was "captivating" but also "not necessarily always pleasant – shocking in some ways".

The hero of the book is Philip Wild, an overweight and physically unattractive academic with a brilliant mind who has a "wildly promiscuous" and unfaithful wife named Flora, whom he married because of her resemblance to a young woman he once loved. In the novel, which is both playful and dark, Wild toys with the idea of committing suicide.

There's also a BBC program online about the work.


— TJ Sullivan