What the what? She'll be in Toronto while signing autographs in Vancouver and Halifax. There's a link to her invention's website. I haven't figured out how it works yet.

Quoted: Margaret Atwood will sign books for fans in Vancouver and Halifax using the LongPen, allowing her to talk with each fan via private video chat and to transmit a genuine, personalized autograph instantly to their copy of the book.

Could be another great HBO series, and a nice thing for the area, assuming it's filmed here. I liked the book a lot.

Quoted: Actor-producer Rita Wilson will be in charge of developing a one-hour series out of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jeffrey Eugenides novel, "Middlesex."

Quoted: HBO has not commented yet on whether the series will actually be filmed in Detroit, but going off of recent trends (the network's new series "Hung" was filmed in the metro area), there's a good possibility.

I'm looking forward to reading this.

Quoted: The man with wide-ranging expertise weighs in on overnight fame and politics.

Interesting. I always love a good Kay Graham story. I also like his takes on scorecards and U2.

Quoted: “Buffett began to be seen out with [Washington Post Publisher Katharine] Graham more and more. She made it her job to try to give him more polish. … [He] became a regular guest at Graham’s famous dinners, which he called her ‘Kay Parties.’ He enjoyed his status as the hayseed who was flummoxed by a lobster.”

Wow; high praise. I think I'll check this one out.

Quoted: “Netherland” is a bit like the wily and ebullient Chuck Ramkissoon. It has more life inside it than 10 very good novels.

Very interesting story about new money clashing with old values in Aspen. The deceased owner was a bohemian; the new owner helped fund the swift-boat ads. I wonder how the owner of this newspaper feels about the issue :)

Quoted: Many Aspenites were happy to see Explore purchased and preserved. Yet others see it as just the latest sign that Aspen is being sold off to the ultra-wealthy. They worry that Mr. Wyly, who paid $4.6 million for the store, will change its politics. Distrust of wealth among some longtime Aspenites runs so deep that no matter what Mr. Wyly does with the store he will be criticized.

Quoted: He adds that calling him a "conservative" and Mrs. Thalberg a "liberal" is oversimplifying. "I'm interested in personalities, not political parties," he says. What's more, he says, it's irrelevant to the bookstore. "People go to a bookstore because they love books, not because of politics."

Topic: The Internets are making us stupid. Discuss...on the Internets.

Quoted: I don't like that Rush Limbaugh listeners call themselves "dittoheads." It's funny, but it's kind of horrible. Fox News is a self-identified conservative outlet. The more extreme elements on the left treat their fellow citizens as if they're idiots, or as if they're rich people who don't care about anybody. So, I look at some of our culture, I see demonization, and I think, where does that come from?

Quoted: History Arts & Libraries - The following list of 50 essential works of Michigan history was selected by a team of noted historians assembled by the Department of History, Arts and Libraries and Randy Riley, Special Collections Manager for the Library of Michigan.