paper trail

Jul 12, 2011 @ 4:00:00 am

John Lurie, photo by Sylvia Plachy

The New Republic’s Bradford Plumer wonders why British tabloids play so much dirtier than their American counterparts in spite of the UK’s stricter libel laws.

A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard’s account of eighteen years in captivity with a convicted sex offender, has skyrocketed to the number one bestseller spot on Amazon, a day after her ABC interview drew fifteen million viewers.

The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary trace the first use of "OMG" back to a letter written in 1917 by British Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher.

A douchebag by any other name? In response to a query from her editor at Harper’s, Elif Batuman considers when the term should be used.

Misha Glouberman tells Sheila Heti what it was like to go to Harvard after spending his teenage years in Montreal’s underground arts scene: “The thing I figured out soon after I applied was that, on Gilligan’s Island, it wasn’t the Professor who went to Harvard, it was Mr. Howell, the rich man. That was something of a revelation.” An excerpt from their new book, The Chairs Are Where the People Go, has been posted at the Paris Review Daily.

Novelist Adam Haslett takes a cross-country roadtrip.

We just came across (and enjoyed) Rick Moody’s thorough rebuttal of Tad Friend’s New Yorker profile of John Lurie.