I’m Feeling a Little Cheated by the Bordeaux Library

It’s fine. Really. But I’m just not seeing this kind of behavior among my librarians. Um, I guess that link is probably not safe for work. Unless you work at a library, where apparently things are at a level of sexiness surpassed only by fire stations.

But this begs the question. Why are firefighters sexier than police officers?

If I had to rank public servants, I’d go 1. firefighters; 2. librarians; 3. EMTs; 4. teachers; 5. police officers. But firefighters and police officers are natural enemies, like cats and dogs or peanut butter and jelly. So, perhaps it behooves us to wonder, just momentarily, why firefighters are at the top of the heap.

Here’s my theory: It’s the giant pants. We learn to be positively predisposed to giant pants as children, putting on the pants of our parents, being handed down the giant pants of our older relatives. Giant pants say “there’s room for you.” And then, as we get older, we come to associate giant pants with clowns, which for anyone born in the post-Stephen-King era, means we associate giant pants with heightened emotions, usually terror, and the fun of having that terror relieved. And then you stick good looking people in those big pants? With the hint that maybe we will be able to see down those pants?

It’s just a cultural recipe for sexy.

Edited to add: I should give a shout-out to Rachel for pointing me in the direction of these sexy librarians. Thanks, Rachel.

The Sun is Shining

I went down to the Corner Pub for lunch because I needed to hide from everyone for a little bit. And I sat in the window and ate their crinkly fries and half a burger. Their burgers are way, way too big. But Mrs. Wigglebottom will be happy and I was happy to have the fries.

And to sit in the sun.

I’m getting excited and nervous about “The Witch’s Friend.” I’m afraid no one will like it or y’all won’t read it because it’s long and weird. But I’m also excited to have something happening for October, just because I had no idea how I was going to follow up the stories that eventually became A City of Ghosts.

The things I’m learning about writing are as follows:

1. It can stop you dead in your tracks if you’re worried about writing the best possible, most perfect thing you can write. Better to just focus on writing a book you would like to read.

2. Being good sometimes doesn’t matter.

3. You just have to write and write and write. Put in the words.

4. Reading a lot helps.

And that’s it. All my years of blogging and writing and that’s all I know. and I probably knew it before I started, too, just not in the same ways.

Does Sarah Palin Know that Discovery Works Both Ways?

I have mixed feelings about the Joe McGinness book about Sarah Palin ranging from “I don’t care” to “that seems like a cheap shot” to “has anyone in the media read this before dismissing it?” Which is not to say that I want to read it, but I find there to be something weird about the number of journalists who made such a public spectacle out of refusing to be among the tawdry who did read it.

Hello, journalists. You are, by definition, tawdry. It is your job to read the crap and report on what’s actually newsworthy in there so that I don’t have to. Do I believe that you necessarily know what’s newsworthy? No. Does that excuse you from actually reading things? No.

This is why I can both believe that Trigg is Palin’s child AND think that no one in the media did their jobs nailing that story down.

So, Joe McGinniss. Yes, it’s creepy. But it was bound to be creepy.

Here’s the thing, though. McGinniss has been pretty open about his writing process. He has a blog. He talked regularly about the things he could confirm, the things he couldn’t, the people who would talk to him, the people who wouldn’t, the information he could get, and the information he couldn’t and why he thought that was the case.

Part of it, obviously, is that McGinniss is just a writer. He can’t compel people to talk to him. He can’t compel businesses to give him documents. He can’t get court documents on a sealed divorce case. So, whatever it is he thinks he knows, there’s just some stuff he can’t prove. Because he doesn’t have the weight of the legal system behind him.

Unless Palin sues him. Then he has the whole discovery process to get his hands on things he couldn’t get while he was writing the book.

This is what I find both baffling and weirdly familiar about Palin. I get the impulse to strike back as hard as you feel you’ve been hit. I even well-know how the queen bee in a small town gets used to running the town through fear and intimidation. And I get that those impulses, when they’ve worked for you your whole life, don’t go away just because you’re on a national stage.

But is there no one, no trusted adviser to Palin who explains to her that discovery works both ways? Can she not see how this has the potential to make matters worse for her?

It’s weird.