Praise for Robinson -- Sorta

Today's L.A. Times Arts & Entertainment section has a nice profile of SF Kim Stanley Robinson. (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-kim-stanley-robinson21-2010feb21,0,1103862,full.story)

Nice, that is, except for the obligatory slam at the genre:

"Elegant, charming, funny and profound," summarized a reviewer for the Guardian of London, marking Robinson as the rare sci-fi writer whose polished prose and intellectual heft equals his inventive plotting.

Uh-huh.

LA Times Festival of Books: The Family Presence

The LA Times Festival of Books is being held at the UCLA campus next weekend; and it behooves me to publicize my author cousins' various signings and panel discussions at the event. This information is filched directly from each cousin's blog.

For Tod Goldberg:

Appearances & Signings
Los Angeles Times Festival Of Books
April 25th:
Panel
PANEL 1104
3:30 PM Humor & Race Moderator Mr. Tod Goldberg Mr. Lalo Alcaraz Mr. Christian Lander Mr. Larry Wilmore
Signing to follow
April 26th
PANEL 2102
12:30 PM
Enough About You: Fiction & Humor Moderator Ms. Carolyn Kellogg Mr. Tod Goldberg Mr. Seth Greenland Mr. Ben Greenman
Signing to follow
2:00pm
The Mystery Bookstore booth #411 with Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin
3:00pm
Mysterious Galaxy Booth

And for Lee Goldberg:

April 25, 10:30 am, Dodd Hall
moderating a panel with Craig Johnson and Stephen J. Cannell
Signing to follow
April 25, 2pm, Mystery Bookstore Booth
Signing with Tod Goldberg, William Rabkin & others

Most Inane Comment in a Major Newspaper about Hugh Jackman Hosting the Oscars

"Yes, Jackman . . . is Wolverine of 'The X-Men,' but do we want Wolverine hosting the Oscars? Probably not." Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times

Well, if he was drawn by John Byrne and Terry Austin . . . .

Doonesbury "Accuracy"?

In what appears to be a successful publicity stunt, Garry Trudeau has announced that his already-created Doonesbury storyline for next week will announce Barack Obama as the winner of the presidential election.

The Los Angeles Times, in turn, has announced that if Obama loses, the Times will not publish the strips. Instead, it will publish reprints that the syndicate will make available.

I find the Times' concern for "accuracy" incredible. "Doonesbury" is not a news report. It is a comic strip in which one of the characters is an anthropomorphic cigarette butt.

Perhaps, in the interests of "accuracy," the Times comic strip editor should note that dogs, cats, coyotes, pigs and horses do not talk; that no human being has a nose as long as Darryl's in "Baby Blues"; that the kids in "Family Circus" are now retirement aged; and that Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead are in their 90's.