After having a three day weekend, I've been scouring the Internets to get my mind back in the swing of things.  By the way, was anyone at Bondi on Saturday night?  I was there, enjoying my dinner, wine and company when out of nowhere, I couldn't stop coughing! Face turning red, gasping for breath, arms in the air, the whole bit. I couldn't even stop long enough to have water.  Then I looked around to discover other patrons coughing.  Suddenly, a hostess started yelling for everyone to evacuate the restaurant.  We all went running outside (my dinner companion does not forget to grab his beer... always thinking, that one!) when fire trucks and the police soon descend on the joint.  Apparently, some knucklehead decided to see what pepper spray smells like.   Nice.  Chalk one up for the knuckleheads. 

Anyway, here's some Tuesday reading...

The new R.E.M. album Accelerate comes (officially) out today.  Here's an interview with Michael Stipe.

Stuff White People Like is now coming to a bookshelf near you... and the blog's author, white boy and unpublished author Christian Lander, is getting paid a reported $300,000 for his musings. 

This is almost unbelievable.  We are banning literary authors from entering our country for reasons of "moral turpitude"?  When will our nation and culture grow tired of our puritanical roots, especially when they are so misguided and hypocritical?  It was the outfit that gave the poor bloke away:  "he was dressed in top hat, long velvet coat and gloves – and detained while officials searched the Internet for information about him and his work."

Another disturbing trend, which we've felt acutely right here in San Diego, with the loss of David Elliott at the Union-Tribune.

David Simon, creator of The Wire, has a couple of different projects in the making.  I've heard rumblings of an HBO series set in New Orleans.  However, this HBO project might be a priority.  I have to admit, the characters in The Departed seem like perfect Simon material.

Here's a review of yet another book purporting a deep anti-intellectualism in the United States.   The book's author Susan Jacoby writes:  "America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism."

On that cheery note, Happy Tuesday!

Again, if you are not caught up on HBO's The Wire, you should stop reading here.  Terrible and Devastating Spoliers Ahead!

For those fans who are caught up, some of whom may have watched last night's episode a week early On Demand (like me), let's agree we've experienced a great loss.

Omar Little, trail-blazing gay stick-up boy, the most honorable thief among thieves, was gunned down last night in a west side convenience store buying a pack of Newports.  The writers have protected Omar for four seasons now, longer than I expected.  I've been sensing Omar's impending death throughout this season, as his grief over Butchie's murder by Marlo Stanfield's crew created an Omar we haven't seen before:  emotionally and physically broken, reckless, so bent on revenge he took himself out of the shadows and onto Stanfield's corners, challenging Marlo to a showdown.

Omar has always lived in the shadows, smoking his cigarettes inside dark corners, conducting street-level surveillance and putting the cops' surveillance efforts to shame (an intentional contrast).  Throughout The Wire, when Omar emerged, it was always with great heralding as corner boys and young pawns ran ahead of him yelling "Omar," "Omar," "It's Omar, y'all."