Link dump

Odds and ends that I've linked to on my Facebook wall:

John Hodgman actually speaks the way he writes. (One reason I will always be a fan: I admiringly wrote about his first book--which I received as a gift shortly after his first Daily Show appearance--and he actually left a thank you in comments. Funny and classy--a nice combo. I've linked to it before, but if you've never seen it, do watch his TED talk. It's a fine piece of work.)

Janelle Monae: Amazing performer or superamazing performer?

"Black Swan" = "Repulsion" + "The Red Shoes" X any random late-night Cinemax movie / any random David Cronenberg movie. Basically, it's complete hooey. There is nothing original in it at all. "The Red Shoes" is available on Netflix instant streaming, and "Repulsion" can be rented on disk, as can Cronenberg's "Videodrome." Watch those instead. (Oh, be warned--"Videodrome" is pretty out there. A co-worker once shied away from me for a while after she watched it on my recommendation.)

Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" was by far my fave book as a kid. Good interview with him on The AV Club here.

Great, hard-to-find Nilsson performance here.

The serial comma: now and forever. (Earlier TVB commentary on the serial comma here and, sort of, here.)