12 June 2009

Friday stuff and items

1) Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are movie has a blog: We Love You So. And it's thoughtful and interesting, and you know - the coolness. 'This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality.'

2) Every second Monday, Yann Martel sends a book to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper*, books that he hopes will 'expand' the PM's 'stillness'. Martel's blog, www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca, chronicles the books he has sent thus far and further explains his mission. And the Globe and Mail reports that Harper has finally written back.

By all accounts, the public service would be quite keen for our very own KRudd to expand his stillness a bit. Maybe we should steal Martel's idea, beginning, of course, by sending Special Kev.


3) According to the Global Language Monitor, the millionth word in the English language is 'Web 2.0'. Which, to be frank, is a little disappointing. It's hardly very ephonious, it's not very precise (the whole concept being a little nebulous and hard to pin down), and we question its durability. The Chambers Dictionary, for one, didn't include it in their current edition. The Onions vote to hold out for something better. And we are happy to take suggestions...



* We thinks, if you squint your ears, Stephen Harper sounds a lot like Richard Parker - is it possible that the Canadian Prime Minister is actually a Bengal tiger?

4 comments:

Natalie Hatch said...

I triple dog dare you to send KRudd Special Kev.

Anonymous said...

We DID send it - a signed copy, no less! And I have it on good authority that it is on display in the parliamentary library!

lucy tartan said...

Next he ought to be sent "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Just as a cautionary tale like.

barking owl said...

We had a question on our Tertiary Entrance English paper which asked about the 'word of the the 21st C.' My favourite answer was "meh." So very teenager. So apt.