Good for Little, Brown and Co.

I was glad to read that Little, Brown and Co. found some brains and decided not to republish a revised version of Kaavya Viswanathan's novel.

Little, Brown and Co. will not publish a revised edition of Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" nor will it publish a second book, Michael Pietsch, Little, Brown's senior vice president and publisher, said in a statement Tuesday.

Apparently the plagiarism was to onerous even for them. I hope she has to pay back her advance.

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Usually the adjectives "red hot" and "sizzling" don't precede the Detroit Tigers. But at 19-9 the Tigers have won six in a row, have the second best record in the American League, and are only a half game back of the World Champion Chicago White Sox.

The upside of all this is it's not embarrassing to wear my Detroit Tiger hat in public.

Random Thoughts from This Weekend

Marathon Girl, I, and our boys were filmed for a public service announcement for the United Way over the weekend. I don't know if they'll use the footage but if they do, this is how you can identify us: If you see a gorgeous woman, two adorable kids, and some less-than-average looking guy next to them then you've seen our spot.
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It amazed me how our actions can affect people we don't even know. Saturday Marathon and I were in the middle of a six mile run when we ran past a park. A woman at the park yelled at Marathon Girl as we ran past: "I see you running all the time! I want you to know you've inspired me to get back into shape!" I asked Marathon Girl who the woman was. Marathon Girl shrugged her shoulders and said, "I have no idea."

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Aidan and Steven have their own language that consists of coos, yelps, and laughs. I don't think I'll ever figure out what they're saying to each other.
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When bad things happen to us, we sometimes wonder what we did to deserve such a thing. But knowing why bad things happen to us isn't nearly as important as facing our challenges with unrelenting optimism.

I Knew It

Apparently Kaavya Viswanathan has now admitted that passages from her book were lifted from another writer.

"Publisher Little, Brown and Company, which had signed Viswanathan to a reported six-figure deal, said in a statement Thursday that it had notified retail and wholesale outlets to stop selling copies of the book, and to return unsold copies to the publisher....Little, Brown has said the book will be revised as quickly as possible."

What I don't understand is why they're revising it. They should simply stop selling the book and Viswanathan should be blacklisted from publishing anything ever again.

I perused through a few pages of one of her books online last night and, from what I read, she seemed very talented for a 19 year old. Unfortunately now we'll never know how much of her talent was real and how much of it was hers and how much was borowed from other writers.

But if you want to read something very poignant and well written, I suggest you check out the essay titled Vessels by Daniel Raeburn in the May 1 issue of the New Yorker. (Sorry, no online version is available.) It's a touching story about his wife giving birth to a stillborn baby. It was hard to read having lost a daughter but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Accidents Happen, Right?

It seems like more of these author/plagiarism stories are becoming more common. Most recently a 19-year-old author, Kaavya Viswanathan, was accused of borrowing passages from another author, Megan McCafferty. Viswanathan's response? It was an accident. "While the central stories of my book and hers are completely different, I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words." Viswanathan said. "I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious. My publisher and I plan to revise my novel for future printings to eliminate any inappropriate similarities."

You can read examples of similarities from Viswanathan's book and McCafferty's novels here.

I cringed when reading the examples uncovered by The Harvard Crimson. Some of passages them are pretty much verbatim. I think there are too many passages and similarities between Viswanathan's passages and McCafferty's books to believe they were unintentional.

Writing is hard. Being able to string words, sentences and dialogue together can be very difficult. Writing a book-length manuscript was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. But I don't understand the temptation to borrow passages verbatim from another writer. What happened to honesty and integrity?

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On a side note, Michelle, if you're reading this, you might want to check out this essay called Earth Camp.

Listen to Me II

I'll be co-hosting FreeCapitalist Radio this TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY (April 25 and 26) from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. Mountain Time. If you're in Utah and want to listen, the show is on 630 AM.

If you're outside want to stream the show in via the Internet, paste the following link into your browser: http://www.audiorealm.com/player.config.html?page=listen&stationID=60659&relayID=-1&srefID=1

It's a talk show so if you're listening and have something to say, you can call the show at 1-800-331-4301.

Go Tigers!

Congrats to the Detroit Tigers who swept the Seattle Mariners this weekend and improved their record to 12-7. Things have been looking up since their new skipper, Jim Leyland took control and this is the first time in years the Tigers have been this far into the season with a winning record. There's still a long way to go but I like the direction the Tigers are headed. And Mr. Sensitive, how could we be friends all these years and you not know why I'm a Tigers fan? Apparently we never talked sports much. My grandpa was born and raised in Michigan and went to many Tigers games growing up. Being a fan of the Tigers fan has been passed down from generation to generation. Who knows how long it will last. Maybe my kids will wise up and root, root, root for a real team when they grow up.

Behind the Microphone

If you've never been behind the mike of a talk radio show, you don't know what you're missing. Co-hosting FreeCapitalist Radio yesterday was one of the most fun things I have ever done. I hope I have the opportunity to do it again. When I took my current job, I never thought co-hosting a radio show would be something I'd be doing.

A few weeks ago the main host of the show was unable to make it into work so we ran a taped show. I sent the main host an email and mentioned to a few people that work on the radio show that we needed to have a substitute or two lined up for unexpected events like this and that I'd be willing to do the occasional sit in.

The next week I was asked to tape a one hour mock show that the main host could review to see if he wanted me on the show.

So last Thursday I did an hour long mock show in the radio studio at work to see how I'd do. The plan was to have the main host listen to it this week.

Needless to say I was surprised when, 45 minutes before the show was scheduled to start, my supervisor's office who informed me that the main host couldn't make it to work that day and wanted to know if I wanted to do the show.

"Sure," I said. I tried to sound as calm as possible but inside I was freaking out. I felt like I had taken one swimming lesson and then was told that I'd be thrown in the deep end of the pool.

I found some things to talk about, sat behind the microphone a few minutes before the show started, took a deep breath, and waited for the show to begin.

What followed was the fastest two hours of my life. I managed to make it thought the show without any major mistakes and had the time of my life.

Anyway, the show is political in nature and I've promised to keep things of a political nature off this website unless they in some way relate to the mission of this site. But if you want to hear what my voice sounds like or what I talked about on the show you can listen to an audio file by going here and clicking on the April 18 show link. You can download an MP3 of the show here.

Happy listening!

Behind Lock and Key

I find it interesting that what supermarkets tend to put behind lock and key varies by neighborhood. For example, my in-laws live in a somewhat bad neighborhood. At the supermarket closest to their home cold medicine or other products that could be used to manufacture methamphetamine are locked up.

Marathon Girl and I live in a county with one of the highest birthrates in the nation. When you go to supermarket nearest to our home, condoms, other forms of birth control, and pregnancy tests are kept behind lock and key.

I never thought going shopping would make me long for the days when stores never locked anything up and simply trusted people to buy whatever they needed.

School Books 'Wrong' Jon Stewart

Saw this article today that made me chuckle. It's about a school in Ogden, my hometown, no less.

An embarrassed charter school has discovered it booked the wrong Jon Stewart for its annual gala. The DaVinci Academy thought it had made a deal with comedian Jon Stewart, star of "The Daily Show" and host of this year's Academy Awards, to appear next week.

It sent out 500 invitations to businesses and planned for 900 people.

But last week, it learned that it had booked Jon A. Stewart, a former motivational speaker, businessman and part-time professional wrestler from Chicago.

The article brought to mind the following Far Side cartoon.