Recently in New from Grottoites

Gerard Jones has started a new blog about the struggles he's experiencing as he writes his new book, THE UNDRESSING OF AMERICA, for FSG. After months of wrestling alone with doubt and procrastination, he's taking a fellow Grotto member's advice and opening up about the process, hoping it will help his own work and also be useful (or at least entertaining) to other writers. As he writes in the first post, "This blog will be the story of how I got here, an exploration of what the book is, a showcase for excerpts, a platform for your comments and advice, a confession of my madness, and, in the end, the vehicle through which the book gets written." It's at http://undressingamerica.blogspot.com.

Hey folks, here's my latest, a short op-ed essay on the disastrous Farm Bill
about to be passed through Congress. Hope you can give a quick read and pass
along to friends and colleagues. This isn't just a farming issue, this bill
defines our food and fiber and the future of our environment and public
health, among other things. 

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/18/8382/

The Washington Post ran a nice feature today on Meatpaper, the meat-centric magazine published by Grotto wife (or at least my wife) Amy Standen and Sasha Wizansky.

"They are on to something," Peter Carlson writes, "the notion that meat, and the endless variety of rituals, symbolism and taboos surrounding it, can tell us a lot about our fellow humans."

(Carlson also ponders whether my own feature in the latest issue, "Sweat Sock: The Other White Meat," was written with the assistance of much alcohol. I resemble that remark.)

More info about Meatpaper itself right here.

Gerard Jones is now serializing his new novel, Million Dollar Ideas online, one chapter a month, at this link: http//edandjohnny.blogspot.com.

It's a funny novel about a couple of Hollywood screenwriters in '40s, with a surreal twist. Gerry cowrote the book with Will Jacobs, his old collaborator from back when they were regular writers for National Lampoon. Yes, that National Lampoon - it's a wonder Gerry is able to keep his puckishness under wraps as well as he does. See those wraps come completely off in Million Dollar Ideas.

 Our own Mary Roach is reading from her new book, BONK: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, on Tuesday the 8th at the Booksmith. Word is there'll be surprises in store....The Booksmith is on Haight St. www.booksmith.com.

Check out Helena's latest Chow column. It's about teaching kids table manners:

http://www.chow.com/stories/10981.