In the strangest possible connection, a writer whom I lambasted a few weeks back (for her criticism, not her fiction) is the subject of an article that deals with changes made to US-imports of UK literature.

If you scroll down, you'll notice that I wondered aloud about these same editing practices, while talking about the very same book that got A.S. Byatt all bothered (Harry Potter). Curiouser and curiouser.
posted by AR Ross at 6:06 PM

Here's why I love autumn-- I just walked out of my office in North Oxford and across the street to a lot that adjoins the University Parks. There, I jumped up and down for a few minutes and managed to collect four perfect (and perfectly free) small apples right from the tree. I did have an Aesop moment there, imagining myself as the fox who can't quite reach the grapes, but I prevailed.

And I just ate them too. They were delicious.
posted by AR Ross at 3:25 PM

Speaking of spontaneous art, my friend Laura Powers (now Wolf-Powers) and I used to do this in the supermarket aisles of Chicago. We'd go in very late at night to a 24-hour shop (when there were also fewer staff milling about) and create what we called 'supermarket dioramas' in the middle of the aisles.

Of all of them, my favourite was one we called 'I'm Into Barbie', which involved lawn chairs, piles of bags of marshmallows, Barbie make-up styling heads, and lengths of garden hose. I wish there were a picture somewhere. Then we might be the ones featured on NPR.
posted by AR Ross at 12:04 PM

If you knew nothing about the women's final of the US Open, you could read it all in this one photograph (from Reuters). Guess who won?

posted by AR Ross at 7:27 PM