Odds and ends

Sorry for the lack of posting, work has been really cutting back on my reading time. BLAST. Anyway, I started the very first Aurelio Zen novel, Ratking. It was a tad slow to start and it nearly made a premature visit to the goodbye pile, but I stuck with it and I am now quite entertained.

Did you know that Oregon=Israel and Virginia=Austria? In GDP terms at least. Check this awesome map posted on the Foreign Policy blog. It's part of their regular Tuesday Map feature, which is a treat for cartophiles.

Via Sarah Weinman, news that Stephen King is publishing a novella in Esquire.

Well I should have known that Christopher Hitchens would have something interesting to say. In this Powell's interview about his new book on religion the talk gets around to archetypes, which compels him to say "I wouldn't fuck Elizabeth Taylor with your dick." I of course have selected the most outrageous and least representative quote from this fascinating interview, which is really about religion and its place in society.