Go, California!!!!

Need I say more?

Except that Miss J just happened to fly to San Francisco today for a conference at Stanford this weekend, and has been celebrating in the streets since noon! I sure wish I could be there with her, but who knew that today would be the day? Now let's just hope the conservative dumbasses don't go all out to reverse the ruling.

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere

The headline: "Lessing Not Impressed by Nobel Prize" (AP, 11 Oct 2007).

It doesn't seem to happen very often, but it's delightful to see a famous person react to an event in public in a way that exposes the scaffolding of the whole system--in this case, the accepted scenario of "Author writes all her life, is successful, makes bold statements, and eventually wins Nobel Prize--at which time, she accepts gracefully and says all the right things."

Lessing wasn't having any of that:

"I'm sure you'd like some uplifting remarks," she added with a smile.

Lessing, who turns 88 this month, is the oldest winner of the literature prize. Although she is widely celebrated for "The Golden Notebook" and other works, she has received little attention in recent years and has been criticized as strident and eccentric.

Asked repeatedly if she was excited about the award, she held court from her doorstep and noted she had been in the running for the Nobel for decades.

"I can't say I'm overwhelmed with surprise," Lessing said. "I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off."

Surrounded by members of the international media in her flower-packed garden, Lessing was dismissive of the Nobel — calling the award process graceless and saying the prize "doesn't mean anything artistically."

You go, girl.

Sometimes We Like Fire...

...and sometimes we don't. Thanks to Rob for sending me the news of a fire at DC's Eastern Market yesterday that gutted part of the historic building that was one of my regular weekend destinations, along with Rob, Tina, and others. I haven't been there in several years, but have been meaning to get down there the last few times I've been in DC. Alas.

(Ok, it's a little silly for me, in NYC, to be posting about what's surely common news in DC, when the vast majority of my readership hails from the DC area, but anyway!)