From the Pile: The Buick's in the drive, it's good to be alive.

I hope your office isn't like mine on Fridays. But in case it is, enjoy these morsels gleaned from my attempt to clean out the "saved items" of my Bloglines reading-blog folder. I am awful with saving stuff and never getting back to it, just like with real paper.

• Bloglily loved Mark Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka just like American women love "Real Simple." This is the latest in a long line of recommendations for the book, which I actually had reserved at my local library this week, but forgot to pick up.
• Once upon a time, Emdashes linked to clips of New Yorker editors on Google Video. I still haven't watched any, but you should -- and tell me which ones are good. When I do, I'll do the same. Given the funny feeling I got last month when I saw David Remnick in the flesh at a New Yorker festival event, I'm sure there's something good.
• Jamelah at LitKicks.com read Aphra Behn's Oroonoko so you don't have to. Unfortunately, I already had to back when I thought I would be an English major -- it's considered one of the first novels ever written in English. Too bad, because she covers it very well.
• How to Write Screenplays. Badly. is on hiatus right now, so we'll have to go on using adjectives like hair-spackled and characters like JUST SOME PIRATE without them.
• If you really like new and crazy words and phrases, you should be reading Double-Tongued Word Wrestler. My lexicon has swelled with terms like "God wink."