A sprinkling of treats to enliven your day:
1) Christoph Niemann’s Abstract City blog post, Let it Dough, from the New York Times, in which he explains the world—through cookie dough, natch.
2) A particularly wonderful flash-mob Christmas song in a crowded mall.
3) Our fabulous Candlewick sales rep, Deb Woodward, shared this sugar plum of a discovery. It’s an actor impersonating legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog reading children’s books and philosophizing about their hidden existential explorations and psychological subtexts. They’re very funny:
Curious George
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Madeline
Where’s Waldo?
4) Sir Ian McKellan visits a class of extraordinary ordinary children, is moved by their performance of a selection from Hamlet, and shares his love of Shakespeare with them. I also found this inspiring video of their teacher, Rafe Esquith (Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, etc.), talking about how to help kids develop honor and focus in a distracted, often dishonorable world. And — if you go to YouTube and search for the Hobart Shakespeareans, you will find a wealth of great videos showing these kids in action. It’s so fantastic to see fifth-graders performing Shakespeare, understanding what they’re saying, and expressing it with passion and commitment. Love!
5) This just in from Mediabistro via The Huffington Post: It’s worth visiting Twitter for a new meme called #BookstoreBingo, in which booksellers and customers tweet funny things overheard in bookstores.
Examples:
@AaronsBooks: #bookstorebingo “I’m looking for a book tha’s about *this* big, and has something to do with a Christmas tree, don’t know author or title”
@ThrillDetective: #bookstorebingo (Mother to daughter, holding up copy of Hugo’s Les Miserables): “Look, honey, now there’s even a book!”
@bookmonger: Where’s your section on books about twirling fire? #bookstorebingo
edparnell “I want Mein Kampf” “Who is it by?” “Hitler” “Hitler who?” “Adolf Hitler. You don’t know him?” “I can’t know every writer” #BookstoreBingo
rockcitybooks Best OH yesterday: a mom praising e-books to her 18 y.o.-ish daughter; daughter protests: “But I *love* the feel of paper!” #bookstorebingo
@Brilliant_Books: #bookstorebingo. Overheard: “I forgot what a great selection of books they have here”. Makes it all worthwhile. 🙂
Got any literary laughs or inspirations you’d like to share?
Here’s wishing everyone plenty of these, as well as warm homes, simple pleasures, and cozy family read-alouds as we head toward the end of 2010 and into a brand new year. See you next week.