So the 2008 Tour de Nerdfighting is taking shape, and it will be very, very awesome. Fun will be had. Books will be discussed. Songs will be sung. Libraries will be celebrated.

HOWEVER!

The logistics of the tour have proven complicated in a kind of Goldberg Machiney way--we need 1. a supportive library that is 2. far enough away from the previous supportive library, but 3. not too far away, and we also need 4. a room with enough space for a bunch of raucous nerdfighters, and 5. we have absolutely no date flexibility, because we are in a different place every day.

Anyway, I am profoundly grateful to the hundreds (really!) of librarians who have emailed me for making this whole thing possible, but there are still a couple places we are trying to go:

WISCONSIN -- Dear, beloved Wisconsin, with your dairy farms and your complex relationship with Brett Favre, with your excellent state college system and underrated art museum. Might there be a library for us on or about Saturday November 15th?

MINNESOTA AND IN PARTICULAR THE TWIN CITIES -- The great state that brought us my cousin-in-law and resident physicist Blake Johnson; that provides the poverty-stricken and underfed Republican party a roof under which they might convene; that wonderful state bursting with lakes and "ya know"! Is there a library who'd want us on, say, Monday November 17th?

Or else possibly SOMEWHERE AROUND KANSAS CITY OR TOPEKA OR SOMETHING?

If you can help, please email sparksflyup --at-- gmail.com

Thanks!

I'm a big believer that experience is overrated, but. Sarah Palin? Whose only political experience before late 2006 was as a city council member in Wasilla, Alaska--a town of six thousand people?

wow.

I like Sarah Palin from what I'm reading about her (although obviously we disagree on pretty much everything). I've never heard her speak (has anyone?), but I think she's certainly a bold choice. Here's what I know:

1. She has the reputation of taking down corruption in what is probably the most politically corrupt state in the U.S.

2. She's a woman.

3. Reliably conservative on all the social issues that are important to the Republican base--very strongly pro-life, for instance.

4. No foreign policy experience. (Which I guess the McCain camp would argue is fine so long as McCain is, you know, alive. My argument would be that you don't pick a VP who complements you; you pick a VP who is ready to be President should the need arise.)

5. Some of the much-vaunted-by-Republicans "executive experience," i.e., she has run a government, and apparently run it quite effectively, although in Alaskan political terms, she is still a newcomer, and still probably enjoying the honeymoon bounce.

6. No national leadership on any issues from the governor's mansion (i.e., she's not a Kathleen Sebelius-type governor, or even a Rod Blagojevich).

Okay I'm gonna go back to writing now.

I freakin' love this guy.

Does anyone know a library in Tennessee and/or Birminghamish, Alabama that might be able to host an event on the Great American Tour de Nerdfighting 2008? Say, around Nov. 6th and 7th?

Here are some helpful statistics on the topic:

1. Our honorarium is extraordinarily modest.

2. All our events so far have drawn more than 100 kids.

3. It will be so fun I swear.

If you have any leads, email me: sparksflyup --at-- gmail.com

Thanks!

1. It's not like I look at amazon or Barnes and Noble sales rankings every day (really! I don't! I am too busy googling myself!). But yesterday, we had a six-hour layover in Boston on our way back from Scandinavia, and I happened to glance at the Paper Towns pages at B&N and amazon.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Paper Towns ranked in the top 10 bestsellers on both sites. (Like, right up there with Stephanie Meyer!) The nerdfighters sure know how to cook up a good birthday present.

2. I was totally right about Biden. As I have said previously, I do think there's something a little bit Joe Bideny about him, but he is not without charisma. The pick could have been worse, but I would have preferred Tester. Some day, my friends. Someday we will get the 7-fingered President we deserve.

3. Sweden was fun.

4. I am 31. Here are some highlights from the magical world of birthday videos:

The made-of-adorable Natalie and Calvin send me their four-day-old sibling in the mail:



Kids look good in glasses:



A marching band gets mashed up to sing:



And many nerdfighters are apparently flutists:

I think Obama is going to announce his VP pick soon, so I figure I should put my hunches on record, so I can be duly humiliated when they are wrong:

1. Biden. I don't like Biden as a pick very much, but I think he has an excellent chance. He's knowledgeable, reasonably centrist, and knows more about foreign policy than anyone in the senate. I'm still not crazy about the pick, but so it goes.

or else possibly 2. Tim Kaine.

I don't particularly like either pick (I think Brian Schweitzer is the best choice available), but those are my predictions.

Oh, and here is a video of me talking about the war in Georgia while smearing peanut butter on my face. (It was a challenge from Hank.)

This is what happened, more or less, from the perspective of the nerdfighters. What happened from my perspective will be up later today.

I know I sound crazy in the part where I describe the shape of novels, but whatever. Also, I completely disagree with Hank when he says I was a bad dungeonmaster. But I really did cry while Hank was singing. Everyone was screaming the lyrics! He was a total rock star!

well that was amazing. Pictures later when I'm not typing on my phone.

So it turns out it's hard to talk coherently about half of a great novel within our self-imposed four minute deadline. Nonetheless, I tried. Rereading Catcher with the nerdfighters, I am struck by what an accomplished novel it is--not a hair out of place, as one might say of a bride. But the sexuality of the novel troubles me much more now than it did in high school--the conflation of femininity and innocence, the belief that good men have some kind of moral duty to protect young women from themselves. Holden is a sweet kid, and a good kid. The problem (or so it seems to me) is not the narrator but his story.

I can forgive a narrator most anything. A story, though, is harder to forgive.