Quick hits

Blog-like items.

• A Washington Post article on World Trade Center fraud. Which was very little compared to the overall size of relief efforts, but fascinating to read about all the same.
• A droll WP article about a Democratic candidate forum hosted by the Human Rights Campaign:

  With that [introduction], seven of the nine Democrats -- only Sens. John Edwards and Bob Graham did not attend -- take the stage in a systematic effort to say, in a collective manner of speaking, that some of the Democrats' best friends are gay.

  Indeed.

• I frequently disagree with posts over at the Volokh Conspiracy, but Eugene Volokh has posted a cogent series regarding gay marriage, trying to look at the arguments offered against it in a concrete manner, rather than tossing around vague abstractions. Start with "How Sweet" and scroll up and up, to (so far) today's post "Still More on Gay Marriage".
• Song lyrics of the day, courtesy of my morning commute CD:

  Wouldn't be here if the Athenia hadn't sunk
  Or if dear old dad hadn't got so drunk

  From the Old 97's "Rollerskate Skinny," off Satellite Rides. A close second is this verse from the same song:

  Ain't nobody gonna see eye to eye
  With a girl who's only gonna stand collarbone high
  Rain's gonna come in fair-sized drips
  We're gonna go to heaven wearing paper hat ships

  but that can't match the sheer "Huh?" value of the first.

First draft: fantasy of manners / mannerpunk reading list

This is the first stab at a reading list for the fantasy of manners / mannerpunk subgenres that I talked post-before-last. Any more suggestions, descriptions of things I haven't read, etc.? I'm hoping to put this up on a web site as a resource.

Update: superseded by new draft.

( the list )