Some lawyers have canceled a Harry Potter-themed dinner for children. Then, they kicked a puppy.

Tom Cruise has been revealed as the inspiration for Christian Bale’s performance in American Psycho. I feel vaguely unsurprised.

Walt Whitman in a Levi’s commercial. Wait, what?

A research associate at NYU has procured funding to rewrite Melville’s Moby Dick entirely in emoticons.

If you liked bad poetry, here are some awful opening sentences from a bad fiction writing contest. Also, if you’re interested in writing some bad fiction of your own, some tips include using as many adjectives as you can, describing every character in minute detail, taking no account of narrative pacing, and more.

Stephen King is now writing comic books about vampires who look like Kid Rock.

A surprisingly interesting article about F. Scott Fitzgerald, considering the fact that it’s about his tax returns.

Hail to the power of the TV! NPR says that soap operas can boost human rights for women in developing countries.

Twitterature is apparently not for “serious readers,” but authors are going nuts with the new medium regardless.

Josh Mohr (who wrote one of our Free Book Friday books from a few weeks ago) on insomnia:

“I’m not sure many people think of insomnia as a good thing, but it is. As a ’sufferer,’ I’m up until five or six in the morning almost daily. One thing I’ve found is that I write with the most imagination in the middle of the night, as though my subconscious and conscious are more in tune with each other—something about being liberated from cell phones and e-mails and other plights of the real world. So I recommend brewing some coffee at ten or eleven at night, settling in, and letting your brain get as reckless on the page as it wants, without any distractions pulling you back to earth.”

Books like these are why most people don’t take science fiction more seriously. I mean, really–look at those titles. Pagan Passions, A Woman A Day…I’m unclear (and also intrigued) on how science fiction is involved here.

A refresher course in fair use, in case you feel a hankering coming on to create some transformative works.

This week’s pick-me-up is a video of me and my friends taking a quick trip to the grocery store. (muahaha)

Squish your fruits together!