By Willa A. Cmiel
The Book Bench on Edward Lear: “This week the British Library is publishing two beautiful facsimiles (which will be distributed by the University of Chicago Press), of the 1888 and 1889 editions of books by the multi-talented Edward Lear, an English artist and writer best known for the children’s classic ‘The Owl and the Pussycat.‘” More personally he reminds me of family car trips reciting limericks. My personal favorite:

There once was a Young Person of Smyrna
Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;
But she seized on the cat, and said ‘Granny, burn that!
You incongruous old woman of Smyrna.’

And elsewhere:

• Unseen Obama interview surfaces from his community activist days.

• Tim Burton gives the middle finger to politically correct parents who think his movies are too scary. Check out the upcoming Alice in Wonderland trailer here.

• Is it weird to link to a links page? Well, The Rumpus has good Morning Coffee today. For one, San Fran is converting a toxic site into the U.N. Global Compact Center, “a world class climate change think tank and green tech incubator.”

• Chris Ahearn at Reuters encourages the media to act more like a community. Stop finger-pointing! He also believes in the “link economy.”