Friday Morning Links
* Yesterday Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
* Over 865,200 Gallons of Fracked Oil Spill in ND, Public In Dark For Days Due to Government Shutdown.
* The shutdown comes to Milwaukee too.
* He says his daughter might be alive if not for school-nurse cuts.
* You could save a lot of money abolishing the SAT and just testing directly for parents’ wealth. And in these tough times…
* We Are Teaching High School Students to Write Terribly.
* The Great Library at Alexandria was destroyed by budget cuts, not fire.
* Report: Foxconn using forced student labor to build Sony’s PS4.
* Disney Exec Says Women Are Hard to Animate Because of Emotions.
* Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” is Coming to the Big Screen! Parents, better start your boundless weeping now just to get ahead of it.
* Minneapolis learns that publicly financed stadiums are all scams. Though I confess I’m heartened to see San Diego choosing a comics stadium boondoggle over a football stadium boondoggle.
* This is what a penny looks like after being on Mars for 411 days.
* This Man of Steel nonsense is the craziest casting rumor I’ve ever heard. I don’t care if it’s obviously made up!
* And rest in peace, Kumar Pallana. Another obituary.
Gerry Canavan 
“Parents, better start your boundless weeping now just to get ahead of it.”
Oh, come. I have no doubt that the movie will be a horrific piece of dreck that will savage the reputation of a brilliant story and forever the tarnish the name of a brilliant and beloved author. But I think that “boundless weeping” is a bit of an overreaction, even so.
Stephen Frug
October 11, 2013 at 8:10 am
I meant it the other way! I’m going to cry like a baby if I see this movie regardless of how good it is.
gerrycanavan
October 11, 2013 at 8:26 am
I know, I was being snarky. Seriously, I simply do NOT understand people who are HAPPY when favored literary (or whatever) works are announced as being adapted for film. The results are FAR more often than not terrible, and even when they’re not terrible, they’re a calumny on whatever work we love. When I hear a movie of some favored work is coming out — and I love Chiang’s stories dearly — I am always horrified and sad and hope it falters before it hits the big screen.
I get why AUTHORS go for these things — they get a lot of money from them. But why do FANS cheer them on? Seriously, thinking a movie of something you like is going to be good THIS TIME is like thinking that THIS TIME Republican fever will break, or the Democrats will actually stand up for decency.
Stephen Frug
October 11, 2013 at 8:33 am
You’re making me reconsider how awesome I think a City & the City adaptation would obviously, undeniably be.
gerrycanavan
October 11, 2013 at 8:45 am