Link Banana

Jessica Winters explores how the two differ, and finds they’re mostly the same. Except, maybe, for this:

Maybe it’s the “might” factor that allows us finally to draw a line between procrastination and writer’s block. A block is thick, insurmountable, cast in stone, “as impenetrable as the Great Pyramid,” in Clarke’s words. Procrastination is a more pliant creature. When we defer a challenge until a hazy, ill-defined “later,” one might say that we devalue future time and belittle our circumstances in it; but you could also say that we are irrationally exuberant about the future—it becomes an ascetic, distraction-free idyll where all appetites have been permanently gratified, where minutes stretch out as luxuriously as hours, where all our creative prayers are answered.

Also of note, Ben Zimmer’s exploration of from whence the word came.

The Economist has a new travel blog — I’m still deeply ambivalent about the mixing of that paper and blogs — which poses an interesting question: how many travel guidebooks are written by people who’ve actually been there?

Indeed, he wrote about Colombia without even going close. As he told Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun newspaper: “They didn’t pay me enough to go to Colombia. I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating who was in an intern in the Colombian consulate.”

Lonely Planet protests that Mr Kohnstamm is an isolated example. “We don’t have any evidence as yet that what he describes in that book applies anywhere else,” said Stephen Palmer, Lonely Planet’s chief executive, to the BBC. And the company has also deflated Mr Kohnstamm’s remarks about Colombia by pointing out that he was writing about the country’s history, not its sights or restaurants.

Perhaps it’s an elaborate joke. Perhaps Vulture’s just wrong (one commenter suggests that this could be for Glenn Beck). It’s interesting nonetheless. From the ad posted on Mediabistro, emphasis mine.

The right candidate will be self directed news junkie who has the ability to meet deadlines without supervision. A track record in developing smart and engaging copy, infused with clever and unconventional humor is also a must. Knowledge of current events and politics is required and the ideal candidate will be comfortable writing point of view monologues for a political ideology that may differ from their own.

“How to Write Stories…” is George Singleton’s derisively funny take on the life of a fiction writer. His subtitle, “and lose weight, clean up the environment, and make a million dollars,” gives you some idea of the tone. Whether you’re an aspiring fiction writer, a cynic who thinks writers are fools, or an innocent bystander, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

(via brijit)