So stay tuned! And check out more Nine Gallons on my Flickr page. And please, give me some tips for how to sound less stiff when promoting myself.

Ms. Sands sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. The only difference was that half named a man as the writer (for example, Michael Walker), while half named a woman (i.e., Mary Walker). It turned out that Mary’s scripts received significantly worse ratings in terms of quality, economic prospects and audience response than Michael’s. The biggest surprise? “These results are driven exclusively by the responses of female artistic directors and literary managers,” Ms. Sands said.

Amid the gasps from the audience, an incredulous voice called out, “Say that again?”

Ms. Sands put it another way: “Men rate men and women playwrights exactly the same.”

You know, blah blah patriarchy creates social structures in which women turn on other women, breaking apart the power of the sisterhood in order to divide and conquer blah blah. Anyway, I’d love to see the results of an economic study like this done on comics by women… I imagine they might be a bit different.

There are also some preview shots of my (gulp) “book” on Flickr. I’ve been drawing a lot of baggy pants, unkempt hair and unhappy faces instead of blogging lately. It’s easier on the hands.

Because otherwise Dick Blick wouldn’t be selling these lifesize wooden manikins now would they?

Of course not.

Only $555 for the kid, $779 for the lady and $799 for the dude!

Hell, what’s another $800 when you’ve got $100K in art school loans, right kids? It’ll look so good in the condo! And now you’ll never have to draw from any of those gross naked people!!

“She was wearing dark jeans tucked into tall brown boots, a crisp white shirt, and a long black blazer. She was dressed for a fox hunt. She looked terrific.”

“[Klein's home] is furnished simply, as though on one quick trip to Crate & Barrel.”

I guess a more cynical reading would be that the author is trying to undermine Klein’s thesis here. But then they really seem to genuinely love the outfits and the furniture over at the New Yorker.

Researchers learned that ants that perform specific tasks are no more efficient than regular ants. “It turns out,” said scientist Anna Dornhaus, “that the ones that are specialized on a particular job are not particularly good at doing that job.” … Ann Coulter had her mouth wired shut. … Planned Parenthood of Indiana announced plans to offer holiday gift certificates that can be applied toward the cost of checkups, contraception, or abortions. “They deserve coal in their stockings,” said Sister Diane Carollo of the Indianapolis Archdiocese.

And on that whole Wal-Mart stampede thing:

“It was crazy,” said a worker in the electronics department. “The deals weren’t even that good.”