8 December 2008: Afternoon By The Morning News — 08 Dec 2008 "Never run anywhere if you can walk there." Like North Korea with camels: In Turkmenistan, a dead dictator continues to leave an impression. Why Obama should resurrect F.D.R.'s Federal Writer's Project--and bail out some laid-off journalists. Uncovered archival footage of Nabokov reading Lolita, explaining why he detests Freud, etc. James Wood revisits Revolutionary Road (and other books by Richard Yates). Wood's critical authority has become so daunting, it seems, that even he is afraid to challenge it. Debunking a lit-crit celebrity. Read Birnbaum's 2004 convo with Wood here. "It's life, and chances are, we'll find it in a box years later and be thankful that we have it." Artists mourn the discontinuation of Polaroid film. Video: A behind-the-scenes tour of an award-winning "creative" farm. Gallery: Comic-book panels that feature throttling. Bush's eyelid accidentally nailed to wall. Ikea criticized for selling reindeer meat. Video from the 1978 Sesame Street Christmas Eve Special. BetamaXmas channels the ghosts of television Christmases past. Colbert, Willie Nelson add to the pantheon of Christmas music with "Little Dealer Boy," an ode to a smoke that's sweeter than myrrh.
