The most recent New Yorker (the August 15/22 issue) features an article by Dana Goodyear called "Grub: Eating Bugs To Save The Planet".

read abstract here

It offers up lots of interesting facts, but one of the most compelling (and a convincing argument for possibly consuming insects) is that lobster, shrimp and crabs are all far more disgusting eaters than insects. The former literally scrape the bottom of the barrel (or the ocean, in this case) while insects often feed on lettuce and flowers.

Goodyear references a fascinating 'pamphlet' from 1885, "Why Not Eat Insects?" by Victor M. Holt.

You can read it here!

I'm not saying I'm ready to start eating insects anytime soon (they all freak me out except for bees and butterflies) but the argument for doing so is unlike any I've seen before:)

When I was in college I took a migraine-inducing class called "Being and God." It most certainly wasn't boring and I definitely didn't hate it, but at the age of eighteen I felt I wasn't ready for paradoxes and existentialism and figuring out how God came into existence...I just couldn't accept (without at least trying to think it all through thoroughly) that He Always Was and Is...

Our teacher stood at the podium, small and gentle, a lot like "Sophia" from "Golden Girls," but without the wisecracks. She spoke quietly and wisely and everyone pretty much hung on her every word because she was so fascinating...and old. (I've always been a sucker for the wisdom of elderly people.)

As I turned the pages of The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained some of what we learned came rushing back at me, most of all my least favorite philosophical theory, Pascal's Wager.

The Philosophy Book is actually a pretty good review for people looking to refresh their memory and a great introduction for those new to philosophy.Anyone who is well-versed in this area would probably be just a little bit bored:)

One of my favorite movies ever is the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead" and there is one scene in that flick that is made all the better precisely because of Richard Cheese and his delightful lounge act take on "Down With The Sickness."

The heavy metal band Disturbed also recorded "Down With The Sickness" (in a much more seemingly appropriate ferocious manner), yet (somehow) Cheese's is the one that taps on the absurd cruelity of passing time while being stuck in a mall, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of zombies.

Once I tracked down Cheese's "Down With The Sickness," I thought I wouldn't care about the other songs, but this guy does things to classic 80s songs like "Relax" and "Hot For Teacher" you wouldn't believe without listening to yourself.

Now, some of the album is possibly offensive to a delicate sense of humor and definitely explicit, but some of this Cheese-y charm actually works on me. Yikes!!

I love this quote...

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
— James Baldwin

Long before it was used as a song for The Walking Dead last year, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine No More" by The Scott Walker Brothers was a big favorite of mine. When I saw the commercial for the then new show on AMC chills ran up my spine, the way they always do when I hear a beloved song I haven't heard in ages. And the chills also ran because I couldn't think of a song more perfect for providing a sneak peek at what would definitely live up to its promising preview.

Before I became a zombie fanatic I never really thought about how the genre could be a set-up (plot-wise) for something far more beautiful: survival.  Whether it's the amazingly good Walking Dead (I especially like the character the very much underrated Laurie Holden plays with such compassion and sadness) or the fabulous short story collection The New Dead, I often find some of the best writing is in the zombie 'cannon.'

Last night I was listening to "Invincible" by Pat Benatar and I realized how appropriate it would be for a scene from a zombie apocalypse survival movie (originally the song was used in the early 80s film The Legend of Billie Jean.) And that it turn made me think of an idea for a short story and I've begun writing my very first piece of zombie fiction, which I'm not sure will be any good, but is screaming to be released from my head and onto paper...guess I'm going to give a try!:)