An Assortment of Greatness

My head feels as if it's suspended in a jar of jelly, so you'll forgive me if I don't have something meatier to offer this fair morning afternoon. In lieu of substance, I offer a few things that have gotten me through the day so far.

• Daily Routines catalogs the daily habits of "writers, artists, and other intersting people." How else would I know how Emily Post wrote Etiquette:

  "Post worked on “Etiquette” for nearly two years. Claridge describes her daily routine as follows: she woke at 6:30 A.M., ate breakfast in bed, and began to write. Midmorning, she took a break to give instructions to the household help; then, still in bed, she continued to write until noon." (via Jacket Copy & Kottke)
  

• Avery is running a series of gift ideas for bookish types like me. I especially liked this list of books for someone who likes to watch sports on television. I remember when I used to watch sports on TV...I would add Moneyball and The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis to that list, as well as The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, which is the best book ever written about sports, and so much more than "a stat book."

• Fellow Bill James fan Julie Klam is going to blog about her favorite people of 2008. I'm guessing Obama might be on the list, but who knows? Stay tuned.

• Speaking of Obama, The 10 Worst Predictions of 2008:

  “If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she’s going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her, then. … Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I’ll predict that right now.” —William Kristol, Fox News Sunday (Of course, this prediction was made in 2006, so...) (via The Morning News)

• I got a kick out of this NY Times article about contentious book clubs, although this is a touch snide, even for me: "It was bad enough that they wanted to read 'Da Vinci Code' in the first place," Ms. Bowie said, "but then they wanted to talk about it.