Articles from the road
Work has been crazy and I’ve been on the run but found these nuggets in Southwest’s Spirit Magazine and had to share:
In a move that will either be heralded as a crime against good taste or a long-overdue act of mercy, Orion Books this month will roll out abridged versions of six literary classics. With up to 40 percent less verbiage, the compact editions attempt to maintain the greatness of the originals while trimming away expendable passages and subplots. If the word “expendable” in the last sentence caused you to black out momentarily, you’re in good company. When Orion released the books in England last spring, many bibliophiles became apoplectic.
Seriously folks are we going to create shortcuts for everything? What part of David Copperfield do you consider “expendable”?
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Lefties earn 15% more than righties
We’re talking about male southpaws only. There was no difference among women. Why the disparity between lefties and righties? Researchers have no clue, but a group from Australia may be on to something. They found that left-handed kids spend less time on educational activities and more time watching television than right-handed kids. Maybe everything bad is good for you, after all.
Confession: I watch as much TV as a lefty.
And finally one for the Pud
Starting Aug. 31, “High School Musical: The Ice Tour” will begin a trek across the country. Why ice? Simple: The show has already conquered every other entertainment outlet. The original movie reached 100 million viewers in 100 countries and won two Emmys. The DVD sold 7.2 million copies, the book adaptation sold 1.2 million copies, and the soundtrack became the top-selling album of 2006. At this point, it’s either ice-skating or mime.
There was another about the high % of people who don’t realize that plastic is made from crude oil and think that plastic is biodegradable (it’s not) but they didn’t have that one listed on the website.
So I want to say a quick THANK YOU to Southwest for realizing that their in-flight magazine doesn’t have to be all about travel. That in fact most of the people who are flying are doing so for work and don’t want to read about how awesome Hawaii is. ‘Cause we’re heading to a boring meeting somewhere and the last thing we need is to have seeds of vacation lust planted in our brains.
