Salon has a good article on the friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. It focuses on how one night's argument over Christianity changed both men's writing careers forever.

Did you know Salam Pax is still writing his blog from Baghdad? Of course you did. Did you also know his friend Raed, the one for whom the blog was named, is now also writing? It adds a whole new element. Raed isn't as good a writer as Salam, but he's funnier and a bit more pissed off. I've been enjoying his stay on the site recently. For instance, check out his entry on camels and their association with Arabs.

There has been so little giant squid news these last few months, it makes me sad. However, this story about catfish as big as a bear does help to cheer me up a bit.

I was listening to the radio the other day and had a moment of clarity. I want you all to know that "Still of The Night" is the best Led Zeppelin song ever. That it's not written or performed by Led Zeppelin makes no difference.

Orgasm Implant Trials Stall: If this thing goes off, what will men be needed for? I mean, there's that whole baby thing, but really, so what? (Link from Jay Lake's new blog, once called Caprine Eructations, now called Cylindrical Primate Storage Unit, either way it's filled with lots of cool stuff.)

Words of advice for Justin Timberlake: If your ex-girlfriend disparages your manhood, it does no good to have/let your grandmother defend you. That is all.

Authors writing about their pets can be a sugary-sweet thing, but I'm usually a sucker for it, especially when it's about a cat. And Jeff Vandermeer writes wonderfully about his cat, Pretty Ugly, which died recently. It's a nice story and he shows the cat, warts and all.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Well, my novel for National Novel Writing Month is almost done. Actually, the story is done. It just came up about 8,000 words short, so I'm writing a long afterword about the writing of the novel. Kind of like a commentary track on a DVD, except more rambling. So I should be done in a day or two (it's much easier for me to ramble on about myself at length then it is to write a story that way.) After that, I should be back to more regular blogging.
I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and eats a lot. I'll be seeing you after the holiday.

They have a first trailer up for Hellboy. It seems to have all the right elements: Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, big tentacled things, Rasputin, Nazis. But it also has this Xmen thing going on, something about hiding the facility from the public. That was something never dealt with in the comic book. But even that has its good point, Jeffrey Tambor plays the politico. So, here's hoping it's good.

More than 100 whales and 10 dolphins beached themselves in Tasmania.

It's getting to be Christmas shopping season, so here's a little something everyone would like: A purple frogskin stereo theremin.

3 a.m. magazine has an interview with Michael Moorcock. (Link via Bookslut.)

Who knew the "B.C." newspaper comic strip could be so interesting. A controversy has erupted over one strip which shows a character enter an outhouse at night, slam the door and then say "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?"
The strip, when I read it, just seemed a rather unfunny joke, nothing unusual for comics pages these days. But some people have taken it as a slur on Islam. The image includes six crescent moons, which is a relevant symbol to Islam, and the word "slam" (which some argue seems unnecessary) is written upright, as if the word were an "I", therefore, somehow, translating to Islam.
The strip's author is an evangelical Christian and has done religious strips in the past. But he denies he put any anti-Islam message in the strip.
Personally, I just see it as an unfunny joke that unintentionally had a few too many symbols for its own good. But the article offers a lot of interesting insights on the issue, including the idea of ignoring authorial intent.
It's probably the most thought put into a "B.C." comic in ages.

The Guardian picks the 40 best directors and David Lynch makes No. 1. It's a good list, whether you agree with it or not, and has a lot of interesting choices. They are especially conscious of directors outside the English-speaking world, people like Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike. Good stuff.

Margaret Armen, one of the first successful female TV writers, died. She wrote for both "Star Trek," "The Rifleman," "Wonder Woman" and "Land of the Lost," therefore I love her. Here's a listing of the episodes she wrote.

A woman is suffering: "'I looked at him in the face and said: 'How would you like to walk around on the verge of an orgasm every second?' And he shut up.'"

Terry Teachout gives a good account of the National Book Awards, in particular Stephen King's speech and the little acknowledged response to it by Shirley Hazzard.

Interesting story on a caretaker looking to preserve the Easter Island head stones.

There's an interesting thing going on. At twinkle twinkle blah blah blah etc., a blogger writes that an anarchists' party was broken up by police. At HereIType, another blogger gets a short firsthand account of what happened.
What's interesting about all this is that there hasn't been any report on this, except for a small one in the Daily News, apparently. So, really, bloggers are the only one doing the journalistic work on this thing. That's kind of exciting, if they follow through on it.
However, traditional alternative media have already gotten wind of the story. Here's an account from Pacifica Radio, which is a liberal (radical?) radio show played locally on WPKN. And here's a version from infoshop, an anarchist news source.
Now if there was only some reporting from straight media to give a more "official" account of the story.
I'm always interested in seeing first hand reporting by blogs, but I haven't seen too much of it yet.