Laila Lalami

Yesterday I received an invitation for a cocktail party with Susan Orlean, whose book The Orchid Thief inspired the Spike Jonze movie Adaptation, nominated for multiple Academy Awards this year. The New Yorker magazine is doing it and they’re inviting subscribers… So I call the RSVP line, and there’s a nice message to leave your name and number, and when it goes to the machine, it answers with “Sorry, this mailbox is full.” I tried a couple of times, and then gave up. Oh well.

Addendum: I tried again around 10:30 and got through. I think.

Thank the lit marketing gods! Oprah’s book club will return.

Yesterday afternoon, Maud posted a very interesting article about a weird case of plagiarism. The basics: According to an article in the Daily Princetonian, Seth Shafer wrote a story that won the Fictionline contest in 2001. A year later, an eerily similar story was presented by Princeton student Ung Lee to a SUNY Stonybrook contest, and it won. The story was part of an entire collection, which was written under the tutelage of Joyce Carol Oates, and which went on to win many awards. Within minutes, the article was being discussed on Zoetrope. Today, MobyLives posted a link to the same article, and even has an interview with the author. I think everyone would like to hear Ung Lee’s side, but he hasn’t popped in anywhere on the lit sites. The evidence is pretty damning, however: Seth’s story vs. Ung’s story.

Why, oh why did I even bother watching 5 minutes of Crossfire on CNN? The snippet I saw featured Dave Bossie, of Citizens United, a man who was urging Americans to boycott French and German products. He said it was because he wanted the French and the Germans to understand that they were the only thing that stood between the liberation of the Ai-raqi people and the dictatorship of Saddam. Hint to Mr. Bossie: If you’re going to “liberate” them, at least pronounce their name right.
And Tucker Carlson was egging him on, though he admitted he had no idea what Le Coq Sportif was. Hint to Mr. Carlson: In order to boycott, you’d have to be a consumer.
Why, oh why?

Joyce Maynard describes how the writing process works for her. I don’t usually link to these kinds of articles, because I’m of the opinion that there are as many “ways” as there are writers, but she’s very articulate. So it makes for a good read.

Michael Moore’s book Stupid White Men has just won the British Book Award for Book of the Year. This was the first time that the public was allowed to vote on the award. I suppose it goes to show what’s on people’d minds right now.

Link via MobyLives.

It’s looking more and more like the Kurds will be sold out in Bush’s efforts to invade Iraq. In exchange for using Turkey’s bases, Turkey is most likely going to have the right to occupy what has been essentially a self-governing area of Iraq for 10 years.
Nice going. Bush’s “liberators” are paving the way for a colonial enterprise on the part of Turkey. Isn’t it surreal that we are going to go to war with Iraq over its violations of UN resolutions, and in so doing, will ease the way for Turkey, which has violated even more resolutions than Iraq? (FYI, the top violators are, in order, Israel (31), Turkey (23), Morocco (18), all of them U.S. allies). And who knows how will such a move affect Kurds in other nations? (Besides Iraq and Turkey, there are Kurds in neighboring Iraq and Syria.)
Get the duct tape out.

A Danish pizza place owner has put up a sign barring French and German nationals (in addition to dogs) from entering his restaurant. C’est beau, la democratie, non?

It’s my birthday today. And as if to confirm the fact that I am indeed older, I didn’t know half of the performers mentioned at the Grammys last night. Who the hell is 50 cent? BigTymer? Remy Shand?
And I drank chamomille tea.
And I went to bed at 10:30.
So there.

Addendum: Alex and I went to Chaya for a quiet dinner tonight (but thanks to Neil, Candy, Irene, Drew, Sage, Maria, Keaver, and Carl for a fantastic dinner on Saturday). Ate entirely too much. Ran into an old friend I haven’t seen in almost a year.

In a continuing assault on our language for the sake of the “war on terra,” some restaurant owner in North Carolina has decided to re-name french fries. The new monicker? Why, freedom fries, of course. And if ya don’t like it, you’re not patriotic.