THIS MODERN WORLD

Just learned that my new publisher, Soft Skull, is scaling back and shutting down their New York office. The new compilation is being printed as we speak, so it will still exist in the world — not sure what this means beyond that, except that the road ahead may be bumpy.

It’s been a great experience working with their production team, and my editor Denise Oswald, and I really hope everybody affected by this lands on their feet.

Also: I really don’t want this book to get lost in the shuffle. If you can afford the ten bucks, please consider pre-ordering it.

(Apologies for some real-time editing here as I gather my thoughts.)

Conservative Jones and the Treehouse of Love.

–You can download a free copy of “Life and Death for Beginners,” a novel by friend of TMW Michael Gerber, today (Thursday) only. Details here.

–Have I mentioned that you should avoid Expedia like the plague? The plague, at least, will not leave you on hold listening to the same three or four songs until your head explodes.

Quite a day for Tea Party links:

— further proof of what we all understood anyway: the Tea Party is, in fact, the extremist wing of the GOP, and not some entirely new paradigm in politics.

— they’re also old, white and often on Medicare (contrary to the portrait the New York TImes once tried to paint).

— related in Village Voice: White America Has Lost Its Mind.

— and of course the rising young star of conservatism is at it again.

(This week’s TMW is also not thematically unrelated.)

… adding: even more crazy.

You might, ahem, call it Too Much Crazy.

than other people’s customer service nightmares. But if you were intested in my advice, I’d suggest you stay far, far away from Expedia.