We’re trying hard not to disrespect Stevie Wonder (I just called to say —) … so, we’ll quote the BBC’s lede without commentary: “The widow of U.S. writer Hunter S Thompson has said her husband killed himself while they were speaking to one another on the telephone.”
The Guardian talks to six authors “preparing for the moment they’ve been dreaming about — the launch of their debut novel.” But there’s also an element of the nightmare-ish, as they worry about parents seeing the word “penis” in their books.
Next up on Laura Bush’s reading list: Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. And, in case the choice seems too highfalutin, Kurt Andersen reminds us that her choice of husband isn’t; Laura is “like [so] many women in America who read novels and are married to men who don’t.”
Panopticist.com presents “an annotation of the first page of White Noise, with help from Don DeLillo.” Watch ‘garlic-flavored potato chips’ become ‘onion-and-garlic chips.’