DRINKS AT OBAMA’S THIS THURSDAY. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is in charge of the beer run, taking orders. (Is anything else important today? Not really, but in case of boredom read on.)
- There are two kinds of people in the world: those who separate M&Ms based on color and those who don’t. Always firmly in the latter group, I was forced briefly to question my firm stance upon learning that the food dye used in blue M&M’s can mend spinal injuries in lab rats. Decidedly, I still don’t give a crap (my spine is fine), but I’ll hold my tongue the next time someone swears the colors’ respective tastes are distinctive.
- The long literary tradition of sexual exploits. Prostitutes, bawds, and aristocrats. Titillation!
- It’s no longer “Kindle this,” “Kindle that.” The e-book market is teeing off in January.
- Is Gawker Media the Goldman Sachs of the Internet? While I’m not sure exactly what that means, it sounds pretty good. The Awl explains why they are.
- The Rumpus blogs about Tao Lin’s publishing project Muumuu House.
- I’m exhausted with the fake-local Starbucks scandal, but these people surely aren’t.
- Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago has written a new novel to be published next year called The Elephant’s Journey “based on the real-life epic journey of an Indian elephant from Lisbon to Vienna in the 16th century.” I’m perhaps unduly excited about this, although I don’t know if anyone else is.