I recently re-read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy -- which the second time around is philosophically more interesting, but story-wise less so. In the ending acknowledgments Pullman cites three works: Paradise Lost, the works of William Blake, and On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist. So I went and found it. It's clear why it was an influence on Pullman, and there's a scene with Lyra and Iorek from the first book that's lifted from part of this essay.

Display phototype in New York. Via Luc Devroye.

Matching Album Art Posters -- warning one is NSFW. Via Coudal. And: Best Magazine Covers of the Year.

Wikipedia War and LOLCats ensue.

Last year I tracked my region's performance at DonorsChoose.org from week-to-week using sparklines, generated with the data that Lauren my SQL ninja would compile for us. This (fiscal / school) year, the data has multiplied (tracking nine regions instead of two) and my team has grown from 2 to 5. I needed a better dashboard. Here it is:

Over on the right are sparklines for week-to-week trends. To the left of those are Bullet Graphs which basically show a thermometer against my YTD goals. Both are made with Micro Charts which gets the thumbs up from me, especially if you're doing this sort of thing.

One of the articles on their site showed these nifty red dots as Key Performance Indicators, and I wondered how to do them. It turns out you don't need any plug-ins at all, you can just do some fancy conditional formatting, as explained here. The dot is actually a dingbat from Webdings.

But I wanted to take this idea a bit farther. Could I have more than three states to show the severity of the problem? And couldn't I also vary the size of the dot to indicate the magnitude of the problem, in addition to the shade of red? If, say, my Maine figures were only at 56% of my goal, but since my Maine goal was so low to begin with it only amounted to a deficit of a few hundred dollars, I really shouldn't worry too much about it:

Well the problem is two-fold. First, Excel (at least in Office 2003) you are limited to three formats. Second, Excel won't let conditional formatting change the size of a font. Drat! Getting around the first isn't hard:

There are actually four conditional formats that can be specified. The fourth one is the format that is used by Excel if none of the three conditions specified in the Conditional Formatting dialog box is true. (In other words, the way you format the cell to begin with is the fourth format.)

In my case, I formatted the "dots" column white. If none of the three "alert" conditions apply, then the dot's invisible. If one of them applies, the conditional formatting rules turn the dot light pink, pink, or REDOMGREDOMGHELP!!!

Changing the size of the dot merely requires a bit of slight of hand. (Mouse?) Instead of using the Webdings "n" (large dot), I substitute the Webdings "=" (small dot) if the problem isn't large using a simple IF formula where the dot should appear:

=IF(J5>10000,"n","=").

Format the column with font Webdings and ta-da! Tufte Dots.

I just finished reading Death By Chick Lit -- very much recommended! And I would totally say that even if it weren't written by Lynn Harris, she of Breakup Girl. I don't know how she does it, but DBCL is both LOL funny and a good mystery, a send-up of chick-lit publishing and a sort-of chick-lit book.

Lola Somerville has a husband and a new apartment in Brooklyn, but what she really wants is for her novel to make a splash. Unfortunately it hasn't even made a ripple. Then at a book party, Lola finds her author friend Mimi McKee with her throat slashed. When the bodies of It-Girl writers begin to pile up, Lola starts asking dangerous questions: Are the murders connected? Am I next? If not, um, why not? If I solve the mystery, then will my agent remember my name? As Lola digs deeper, the stakes grow higher. Will getting her hands on the killer -- and the book deal bound to follow -- mean losing the people she loves most?

Lola lives in a fictionalized Brooklyn, and part of the fun of this book are the barely-disguised barbs thrown at various trends, authors, events, even neighborhoods. (She and her husband live in the run-down nabe that the real estaters have dubbed "North Wayside" or "NoWay").

Anyway, if you happen to live in Lynn's actual Brooklyn (or even Queens or Manhattan or the Bronx or Staten Island!) you should come by an event this Wednesday at Cocoa Bar ('round the corner from La Casa Everett-Lane) at 8 p.m. where Lynn will be reading and distributing cake to book-buyers. Yum! Details in the flyer posted after the jump.

Debbie and I have at last finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out loud, so you can now talk about it in our presence without us sticking our fingers in the ears and singing "Oh Mickey" at the top of our lungs.

Somehow, we managed to make it all the way through without hearing any spoilers -- you know, that it's Dudley who finally defeats Voldemort, that Ron is really a girl, that Voldemort is actually Harry's father, that the seventh Horcrux is a sled, etc.

In the latest Pak Talks Comics column, Greg answers my burning questions about gladiators, why it's so hard to make a good comic book movie, and how the heck you write for the Hulk. If you didn't pick up every ish, grab the Planet Hulk paperback -- there's a reason why all the fans are raving about Greg's Hulk story.

Speaking of Imaginary Places, yesterday's post reminded me of La République de Rêves. Back in the 80s I read about the Republic, a project of a couple of Philadelphia artists, in Games Magazine, and sent away for a catalog. One could buy Rêverian passports, "poetic licenses," academic degrees and Rêverian titles, flags, and other ephemera from this imaginary place. Unfortunately all these were beyond my means, but I fell in love with the idea of it. I kept that catalog for some time, and when I finally got around to ordering something (probably a passport), I got my check back with a message that the Rêverian embassy was closed.

More information on La République de Rêves is here, there's an excerpt from the book they created, and here's an interview with G. Garfield Crimmins, the artist.

Via Coudal.

Local publishers McSweeney's are in some financial straits as their distributor went bankrupt, leaving unpaid revenues of $130,000. They're selling a bunch of stuff for cheap, auctioning off some art, etc.

Books I'd recommend: Icelander, reviewed here.

Voyage Along the Horizon, reviewed here.

The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, reviewed here.

Not yet read but on the shelf and very well reviewed: What is the What.

Or, there's always the colossal squid t-shirt. (Colossal modifying squid, not t-shirt.)

Go help! Go buy!

Via Good Magazine.

This blog is at the intersection of Tongue In Charts and Music Reviews. Check out his graphic take on a NYT concert review. Kewl.

That's the name of the latest book from our neighbor and pal Lynn Harris:

When the bodies of It-Girl writers begin to pile up, Lola starts asking dangerous questions: Are the murders connected? Am I next? If not, um, why not? If I solve the mystery, then will my agent remember my name?

It sounds a bit like Theater of Blood, but with chick lit instead of Shakespeare. Anyway, you can read a Huffpo interview with her here: Rachel Kramer Bussel: Interview With Lynn Harris: Death By Chick Lit. Go, Lynn!

Hey, Ishbadiddle is in an article on neighborhood blogs in the latest Park Slope Reader, available in fine stores everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but here. PDF version here in case the Community Bookstore is too far away.

The full uncut "interview" is below the fold. Some of it will look familiar.

So long to one of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut.

Dammit, now he'll never be President.

So my mom sent me a copy of Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff, a series of essays on "The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems." Pretty much what you might expect, a gay Canadian New Yorker's satirical take on American conspicuous consumption. Like a snarky Thorstein Veblen. I liked it enough, it's funny, a Book to Borrow, thanks Mom!, but I have one major beef. There, at the beginning of the second or third essay (on taking a "wild edibles" course in Prospect Park) was The Cliché.

"A flower grows in Brooklyn."

This particular cliché seems to be beloved by headline writers, whenever they have to hed any article about anything happening in Brooklyn. "A Blank Grows in Brooklyn." I grit my teeth every time I see it. I haven't even read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Please, for the love of Mike, kill this cliché! I call for a national moratorium on "A Blank Grows in Brooklyn." Somebody get Marty Markowitz on the phone.

Zadie Smith on literature's legacy of honourable failure. Also, part two. Worth printing out and reading on the subway. Then give it to your favorite reader.

Via robot filter.

modernMantra

Via Quipsologies

Thudfactor has come up with this nifty chart to express how much he likes an album, track by track. Pictured below, "Dark Side of the Moon":

Is that Tufte Rock? Well turn it up!

Speaking of charts, Junk Charts reprinted my Eschatology Chart.

I had this dream. And in the dream the mermaid said: "To think we used to live without a bear!" And then I woke up, and the dream turned into a book.

The Animal Family is that most rare of love stories, that which is unafraid to write of love itself, and not on the obstacles that love must overcome.

A Book to Buy, and one for The Curious Bookshelf, which someday will deserve its own website. Found on the 20 Strange Books list. Yes, I'm reading through them all.

That's right. Buffy Season 8. Coming next March.

In comic book form, natch.

Via peksy'

Peanuts Meets Marvel Mashup. Via Longboard.

Come to think of it, I've been reading a lot of comics lately. I'm still on Greg's Planet Hulk series, plus he has a new Phoenix out and a Battlestar Galactica comic that reads like a really great ep. Also still on Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, and Gaiman's new series The Eternals. No one does myth like Gaiman does myth.

Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, Civil War. I'm just picking up the main issues, not the whole freakin' story arc. I mean, I do have bills to pay.

I spotted this chart on Longboard and immediately had to send it over to Junk Charts. Why, why, why?!?!

"OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?"

And the Case of the Captured Koala.

Grant has some interesting thoughts on the meaning of Douglas Coupland's endorsement of the Blackberry Pearl:

This Blog Sits at the: Douglas Coupland and the Blackberry Pearl

When Coupland endorses a consumer good, he contradicts his cultural significance. In the process, he extinguishes the part of the credibility that made him a suitable celebrity endorser. This damage to Coupland's celebrity inflicts harm on the Blackberry brand. The "meaning mechanics" of this marketing campaign are ill advised.

Maybe he's endorsing it... ironically.

It can't be much worse than using Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" in an ad for a Mercedes Benz.... Of course, she wasn't around to complain.