Title: The Riddle of Life and Death

Authors: Tillie Olsen (Tell Me a Riddle), Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilych)

Rank: 526,004

Blurb: “Masters of short fiction illumine questions of pain, suffering, medicine, fate, and, most starkly, ‘Why am I dying?'”

Customers Also Bought: “Essential Leonard Cohen”

Footnote: This morning’s post inaugurates a threatened monthly event, the real Stinque Book Club. The Management has agreed to open a multipurpose room for the occasion and waive the cleaning deposit. Please note that a gratuity of Two Buck Chuck to the janitor is appreciated.

The Riddle of Life and Death [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Once again, our monthly foray into creative destruction: You email photos, and through the magic of highly caffeinated hamsters, they show up here. (And since it’s been an issue of late, our hamsters are restricted to legal stimulants. We tried doping them once, but the rodent roid rage nearly destroyed the laboratory.)

June Jam [Flickr]

We know something’s afoot when the BBC runs one of these for Obama’s Cairo speech, and a client asks for an automated version the same day. So we thought we’d stuff FlyingChainSaw’s recent Rush Limbaugh post into the word blender and see what pours out.

Wordle – Beautiful Word Clouds

Every month, in an assembly that must be as dreadful to present as it is to attend, students at Peninsula High School in Tacoma, Washington, gather for “Rhetoric Revels,” where they read their essay assignments aloud to each other.

But dashing our prejudice against Flamboyant Nerdism is a 17-year-old student who saw Tuesday morning’s session as a teachable moment. Following his paper advocating marijuana legalization, he pulled out a joint and lit up.

And then he ate the evidence.

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Rachel Maddow presents what’s known about Scott Roeder — and what’s known about abortion-clinic violence. The historical background begins at 2:45. An interview with Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, begins at 5:15.

blogenfreude adds:

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• China Pays for Hummer
• Happy Ending for Hummer?
• Americans Lose Taste for Hummers

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhijqQVjlFI

Words in segment: 574

Words condemning murderer: 49

Words condemning victim: 133

Words condemning critics: 327

Words apologizing for previous words: 0

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