Recently in New from Grottoites

MELANIE’S “THE SLIPPERY YEAR” GARNERS STELLAR NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BOOK BENCH REVIEWS – DON’T MISS THE BOOK LAUNCH ON AUGUST 12-13

We're in for a new spate of Grotto books this late summer and fall, and the accolades are already coming in. Hot off the press is Melanie’s profile in the July 30th New York Times (see link below). And Andrea Walker reviewed Melanie's book in the online New Yorker Book Bench, stating, “By the end of the book I felt like I had just spent several hours knocking back drinks with an especially funny friend. Which is some of my highest praise.” (As Grottoite Caroline Paul remarked, “I like the way the reviewer starts her review all crotchety and at the end wants to have a drink with Melanie. Wait in line, girl. We all want a drink with Melanie.”)

It's a big day in culinary history-—the 50th anniversary of instant ramen. NPR's All Things Considered ran this remembrance of its inventor, Momofuku Ando:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93954544.

This week Women's Health published a profoundly dated essay of mine about being the grandson of the Gerber baby, and not being convinced I want a baby of my own. Amy and I thumbed through it...as we waited happily for our latest midwife appointment.

Alas, the online version doesn't include the cute photos of Grandma:

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-relationships/the-gerber-baby?page=1

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.