Starting this morning, Google Books is offering downloads of “entire works”, for free. For the past two years Google has been working with university liabraries from California, Michigan, England and a few in between. They have digitized anything and everything. Today, Google posted all of their copies of “public domain” books.
This morning, Cullen kicked off his “two weeks of working” anniversary with a meeting in the Acquisitions Editor’s office.
Ralph & Kaccoo’s was one of our favorites eateries in town. The cajun menu and ‘blackened gator’ appetizer were worth battling Hwy. 280 traffic. For whatever reason, the food started to suffer, then the help started to suffer and then they closed sometime around 2000.
Pappas Partners, Inc. who run Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchens, bought the R&K property four years ago. They say they won’t even plan their restaurant until construction at the Hwy. 280/I-459 intersection is done. So I’m hoping my grandkids will get to eat their ‘blackened space gator’ there.
Does anyone know, was Papadeaux’s the big glass restaurant atop Red Mountain, that was destroyed by storms back in the early 90’s?
Cullen’s first author event was with Joshilyn Jackson signing Between, Georgia, back in July. This was about three weeks before Jackson was ARRESTED!!!
Did we introduce our baby boy to a criminal mastermind? Was Jackson really a raving madperson posing as a sunday school teaching soccer mom that writes books on the side to help ends meet?
Nope. Jackson’s crime was that her “papers were not in order”.
Sounds like something from a Hogan’s Heroes episode doesn’t it?
Here’s a slideshow highlighting recently doctored news photos. It’s pretty interesting. (note: the site hosting the slideshow is maintained by a pro-Israel group. There’s nothing wrong with that, just wanted you to be aware).
You can be sure the photographers taking these shots to sell to news agencies know that the more drama their pics evoke the more $$$ they can collect. I wonder if they can collect a “product placement fee” from Disney’s ad department?
Anyway, it definately makes you stop and think.
Tip o’ the fedora to WC for sending that link our way.
Only fellow Birminghamsters will care, but Silvertron will re-open sometime in September. Somehow I missed it when they announced this weeks ago. The Birmingham Weekly reports that it’s been bought by John Otey Hutchinson. He’s the same guy who owns Otey’s in Crestline Village. They say the menu won’t change much, which is good, since B gets the shakes without her fix of ‘hot bacon salad dressing’.
Also, the uber-expanding WineStyles chain now has a WineStyles store at Lee Branch in Hoover. The shop sells wine and some cd’s. Their hook is that they organize wine by some taste scale they made (silky, crisp, mellow, etc.) instead of by varietal or geography. On some scale, I think The Grape tries to do this too, it’s never appealed to me. The WineStyles site says they have ‘demystified’ the wine shopping experience.
Whatever.
Like anything else in life, I think if folks would just read up a little on a subject, they’re bound to enjoy it a heck-of-a-lot more than by subscribing to some marketing gimmick.
But hey their prices are low and they have agreements with some vintners that have never shipped to Alabama before, so I say ‘welcome to the neighborhood’!
Jim Evans’ latest column can be found here over at EthicsDaily.com
As refreshing as it was to read that Reuters fired a photographer for doctoring photos last week, I believe the New York Times has just signaled the end of journalism.
The paper has hired a Hollywood agency to represent its reporters and stories. It’s the first time a newspaper has hired a full-time agent to negotiate the sale of its stories. Evidently, in this day of reality entertainment, the paper has been flooded with requests to turn their news articles into movies, books and tv shows. I guess the Times’ higher-ups got tired of seeing all the “potential revenue” and hired the Hollywod pros to help haul it in.
What happens when editors realize how just how easy it’d be to sell the rights to their story if it was just a little juicier? Or once reporters get their first taste of a little bit of fame REAL fame when they go to the Hollywood movie premiere based on a series they wrote? Or if publishers realize how lucrative movies, books and magazines can be and start looking for stories that would “translate well”?
This is not good.
The Hollywood Reporter initially ran the story which the wires and GalleyCat picked up on.
Day 3 of Operation Embedded Cullen is off to a great start. We get to work, play and smile for a long while…
then we have something to eat and it’s off to sleep!
Please keep books in the classroom. If kids don’t read books at school, they’re sure not going to read them at home.
Thank you.
You can read about the “experiment” over on this Reuters feed.