Quote of the day

From The Novel:  An Alternative History by Steven Moore:

“Can you imagine a Jane Austen heroine declining an invitation to dance because she’s having her period? Can you imagine how much saner our society would be if she had?”

A fun poem

“The Waste Land” by John Beer

Easily the most fun I’ve had in – oh, who can say how long – at least the last 20 minutes or so.

See also Levi Stahl’s take.

THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT BORDERS.
WE WILL BE CLOSING IN FIFTEEN MINUTES.

In honor of Rev. Terry and his used furniture business

I cannot brook neo-Nazis.  So when news came of the for-profit used-furniture e-Bay church called “the Dove World Outreach Center” (someone with a sense of irony chose that name) burning Talmuds and Qur’ans, I felt I had to do something.

I’m not a big fan of Koranic studies.  Worse, the most popular English translations of the Qur’an are financed by the Saudi government (often with wildly anti-Semitic commentary) – so it is not easy to find decent translations.  But Rev. Terry pushed me over the edge – I decided to order the recent shiny nice new bilingual translation published by Oxford (with a revised translation).  I trust it will be a nice supplement to my other translations (my current favorite) the bilingual Princeton Qur’an translation, the Arberry Koran, and the liberal American translation by Laleh Bakhtiar. 

Plus, as a bonus, I decided to get Oliver Leaman’s encyclopedia (because who can’t love a Qur’an commentary edited by a Jew?)  to supplement my copy of the “Westerner contributors only” of the Cambridge Companion.

So thank you, Reverend Terry. Without your ravings and ability to attract an incredible amount of publicity for acting like a fool, I’d have more space on my bookshelf.