Helen DeWitt's Blog, page 47

how to say it

On Language Log, Mark Liberman gives clips of people gamely attempting to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull, then a couple of Icelandic speakers pronouncing the word with aplomb. HT Language Hat.

beach reads revisited

My ex-husband David, hero of our earlier post on A Beach Read of All Times, draws to my attention a number of inaccuracies. It's not exactly, or rather not entirely, that I misremembered his account of being promised unlimited books for a beach vacation: I misremembered one thing (number of books read before the deal collapsed), remembered no details for other aspects of the incident (time, place, weather), and (I maintain) followed an example common in ancient historians, fleshing out accor...

Mike Burns is hosting a discussion of The Last Samurai on...

Mike Burns is hosting a discussion of The Last Samurai on Facebook at Ostraca from today to April 24.

Contenders, Accountants & the Men Who Taxed Them

It's now on the periphery of sporting awareness or interest, but there was once a time—and a very long time it was—when there was no bigger event in sports than a heavyweight title fight. And no bigger pay day. That's where taxes come in.

For a very long time, boxing was the only really big-money sport for athletes. Not for nothing did Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy regret taking the dive that cost him "the title shot outdoors in the ballpark" in On the Waterfront. At a time when Babe Ruth was b...

Singh & the BCA

But most damnable is that this case should have taken place in the arena of medicine, where reasonable criticism of each others practises should never be stifled, for one very simple reason: it's possible, in medicine, to do enormous harm, even when you set out with the best of intentions.

Anti-arrhythmic drugs provide a chllling example. For a few years in the 1980s these were prescribed to everyone who had a heart attack. It made absolute sense in theory: people who've had heart attacks...

sun & sand & skarp hedin

A reader in the Netherlands has a friend with a bookstore who might be willing to stock The Last Samurai if an overseas number can be found for Harper Collins.

A reader in Australia has asked whether the 800 number works for Australia. My guess is Australia needs the overseas number. There was a separate printing in Australia, but I have never had any direct dealings with Random House Oz.

The Last Samurai is already out of print in the UK, but I think the UK publishers might be touchy about i...

Ah.

A friend writes:

Helen,

I have several calls into the publisher(s). The minute I get it figured out, I'll let you know. The customer service number led me to several other numbers which led me to several people of which I should hear from hopefully today. I'll try to streamline the process once I know which route to take.

a beach read for all times

It wouldn't be the beach...without a great beach read.

But how will they know to take your book to the beach if they've never heard of it?

[advertisement from Publishers Marketplace:]

Dear Helen

Did you know that you are being recommended as a "best beach read" by Newsweek?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/774276.asp

Alongside Raymond Chandler, P.G. Wodehouse - and, OK, Mario Puzo and John McEnroe, but still.

David

[e-mail dated 7/9/02 - but age cannot wither, nor custom stale, the infinite variety of a cl...

à la recherche de marcel proust

James McGirk has a Q&A with Lorin Stein, the new editor of the Paris Review, on the Economist's More Intelligent Life blog, here.

MIL: Who do you read for pleasure these days? Which authors, literary magazines, blogs or books would you recommend?
LS: I just reread "Swann's Way" for a class I'm teaching (I got to choose the subject of the class) [The class is called "How Proust can change your length".:] It's the first time I've read Lydia Davis's translation. It's a revelation. I love...

rendering unto Caesar

About 90% of Americans used either tax preparers or tax-preparation software in 2009. That's insane, particularly when you realize that a substantial minority of Americans either don't pay income taxes or have a very simple filing. But when people talk about the need for tax simplification, they overestimate the complexity of many people's taxes and they underestimate the role that fear and anxiety play in the process. People are terrified that they'll get something wrong, or trigger a...