| The New York Review of Books The New York Review was born during the New York publishing strike of 1963, and has since become a bona fide bastion of smarts. The magazine's illustrious cadre of contributors reads like a who's who of literary heavyweights: W.H. Auden, Edmund Wilson, Susan Sontag, Lilian Hellman, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, Truman Capote, William Styron, and Mary McCarthy. The online version offers highlights from the latest issue, a lengthy archive, and buckets of book suggestions. The standout attraction, however, has to be the gallery of caricatures by artist-in-residence David Levine. |
| BadAds.org How does one identify a bad ad? Aren't they all pretty bad? According to this savvy watchdog site, there are four main characteristics of a truly invasive ad: you can't turn it off, it enters your home without permission, you're a captive audience, it doesn't support anything or it costs you money. Telemarketing calls, advertisements in movie theaters (after you've shelled out your eight bucks), junk faxes, and obnoxious billboards all qualify. The movie theater ads really get our goat, so we sent off some fiery complaint letters to the appropriate perpetrators. And did you know that the cast of "The Faculty" was dressed almost entirely in Tommy Hilfiger clothing? |
| Censored - Wielding the Red Pen This online exhibition from the University of Virginia Libraries looks at challenges to free speech and freedom of information as protected by the First Amendment. There are examples of all types of censorship: the 785 dirty words counted in The Catcher in the Rye, the birth control advocacy of Margaret Sanger, and controversial rock, rap and raunchiness. We learned about Thomas Bowdler, creator of the (bowdlerized) Family Shakespeare, who lent his name to the expurgation process by omitting those words "which cannot with propriety be read aloud..." |
| Annie Oakley Foundation Here's a shrine to the real Annie Oakley (1866-1926), a legendary sharpshooter and performance artist from Ohio who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with her husband and partner Frank Butler, and who was never west of the Mississippi until she and Frank joined the circus in 1884. We discovered a fabulous collection of portraits (gosh, she looks good in a hat!), film footage of Annie's act shot by Thomas Edison in 1894, and images of ephemera, including playing cards that Annie shot full of holes. |
| The Moonlit Road "Ghost stories haunt the moonlit backroads of the American South." This noirish, gothic storytelling archive celebrates spooky Civil War battlefields, mists and shadows, rustic cabins, sinister plantations, baying hounds, black cats, and other folkloric icons of Dixie. Many of the stories published here are modern retellings of old legends, available in print and audio format. You'll need to be a member to access past features, but new stories are added regularly. |
| Decopix Art Deco, long a knee-jerk phrase used to describe anything that looks old and new at the same time, gets it's fair due in Randy Juster's lavish online exhibit. After offering up this general description: "buildings based on earlier, neo-classical styles but with the application of exotic motifs such as flora and fauna, fountains and chevrons, typically arranged in geometric patterns. Luxurious, elegant and dramatic, Art Deco had it all--yet was accessible enough to be appreciated by ordinary folk," your learned host provides dozens of beautiful buildings, murals, and postcards. Great stuff. |
| Disturbing Search Requests (R.I.P.) Connoisseurs of baffling search results and obsessive web site creators who study their referrer logs will appreciate this collaborative journey to the dark side of search requests. Here's the deal: If you create a weblog of annotated links and update it often, it's likely that your site is indexed regularly by major search engines. Then, random combinations of words from different days' entries can result in your pages showing up when people type in obscure, arcane, or perverse combinations of keywords. We might be witnessing the birth of a new genre of wordplay: the search pun. Many of the examples here are best suited for mature audiences. |
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