Amazon Daily

By coincidence, today, Independence Day, I'm midway through HBO's John Adams. But I'm unable to watch scenes of the Congressional Congress without expecting them to break into song. That's because my introduction to the signing of the Declaration of Independence was watching 1776 as a kid many years ago, and back in the days of limited network channels somehow this movie and The Music Man would always be broadcast on July 4.  (Where is either movie on Blu-ray, or 1776's soundtrack CD?) 1776 can feel like a history lesson at times, but I like it a lot: it's funny, William Daniels gives a tour-de-force performance as John Adams, and as an American I find it quite moving. Watch a clip of the opening number below or on YouTube. Happy Fourth of July! --David

One of the most interesting aspects of the Portland Farmers Market is its influence as a business incubator, offering the opportunity for ordinary people to go after their dream and see where it takes them.

Two Tarts Bakery, which produces beautiful bite-sized cookies, was one of those ideas that took off. Now the market stand has morphed into a stand-alone bakery, open since September of 2008.

If you can't make it to the Farmers Market on Saturday, you can satisfy your craving for their miniature creations, their Fleur de Sel Chocolate Chips, Cappuccino Creams, Honey Graham Crackers, Hazelnut Baci, and Lil' Mama's, all pictured here, at their shop just off NW 23rd. Thanks to their new store, you could say that purchasing their delicious cookies is as easy as pie. Don't miss them.

--Tracy Schneider

His latest collection, Low Moon (including the chess-battle Western "Low Moon" serialized in the New York Times Magazine in 2008), has filmic moments and comic pathos that have set a new standard for me for short fiction.

None of us would ever get to enjoy the wry dialogue of Low Moon or I Killed Adolf Hitler or The Left Bank Gang without the efforts of Fantagraphics' co-publisher and translator, Kim Thompson. Jason is just one of many cartoonists that Thompson has translated for Fantagraphics Books. In fact, he says that translations represent about 10 to 15 percent of what they publish every year.

Thompson graciously agreed to answer my translation and Jason questions:

Amazon.com: How did you first encounter Jason's work, and how did Fantagraphics decide to publish it?

Kim Thompson: To be honest, I'm not sure if his Norwegian publisher sent me copies or I saw the French edition of Hey, Wait..., but I do know that the minute I laid eyes on it I knew we wanted to publish it. Love at first sight!

Amazon.com: Was he the first comic artist you translated? What others do you translate now?

KT: No, no, not by a wide margin. I was translating Freddy Milton (Danish), Franquin and Hermann (French) and others way back in the 1980s, twenty years ago.

I translate pretty much every European foreign-language cartoonist we publish except for Matti Hagelberg who is Finnish (Finnish is well outside of my area of expertise) and a couple who do their own translations, such as Max Andersson. A more or less complete list of cartoonists whose comics I've worked on in the last couple years would be Nikoline Werdelin (Danish); Joost Swarte (Dutch); David B., Emile Bravo, Killoffer, Jacques Tardi, and Lewis Trondheim (French); Nicolas Mahler (German); Gabriella Giandelli, Igort, Leila Marzocchi, and Sergio Ponchione (Italian); Jason (Norwegian or French); Max (Spanish); and Martin Kellerman (Swedish). I also translated a bunch of captions from many of those languages in our upcoming book of ANTI-WAR CARTOONS.

In case you're wondering, I don't actually SPEAK all of those languages, but I can read them, more or less in some cases. My mother is Danish so Danish is my native language. Swedish and Norwegian are so close to Danish (they're basically almost dialects of one another -- in fact Norwegian and Danish were the same language not too long ago) that with a little work any Dane can read them pretty well, as I do. I learned Spanish in high school and kept up with it. I lived for six years in Germany and also studied German in high school, so that stuck with me too. I lived for three years in Holland. Italian is my weakest language, I sort of plow my way through that thanks to French and Spanish and use of a dictionary -- but all my Italian translations I always check with the authors anyway.

Amazon.com: Translation is such an immersive experience, even more than editing, and I wonder, do you feel differently attached or connected to the works you translate than to other works you publish?

KT: Yes, at times I feel almost like a co-creator. Which is arrogantly excessive, and the feeling fades soon enough! But I'm also more invested in these books because I work so hard on them, and in many cases, of course, such as Tardi, I'm literally fulfilling a childhood dream by translating them.

Amazon.com: What is the actual process of the Jason translations? Does he send you rough sketches with words, so you can translate them before they are typeset? Does he send you phrases that he wants translated? Does he write in English at all?

KT: Jason creates the entire story in French, draws and letters it, sends me the finished French version. (I think he sometimes actually does a draft for himself in English first from which he derives the French version, but I don't see that.) Then I translate that: We delete the French lettering in Photoshop and replace it with my translation, usually using an English Jason font. (Jason's original is hand lettered, of course.)

Jason did hand letter the English language version of Hey, Wait... himself before we developed the font, and he did hand letter the Low Moon book because the "Low Moon" story itself was done in English to begin with (since it was done for the New York Times) and he wanted a consistent look for the book. Hand lettering is always preferable but it's rare that you have a cartoonist willing to re-do all that work -- although Jason's comics are often not very wordy, so it's easier for him. We do have an excellent font, I think, which we've used on all the other four-color and two-color books we've done, as well as the anthologies Pocket Full of Rain and Meow, Baby!

Amazon.com: Jason's work is so influenced by American pop culture and films. Does that make them easier or harder to translate? (i.e., easy b/c he can communicate a lot with a familiar genre, like the Western in "Low Moon," and hard because he sometimes jokes about specific pop cultural references, although I'd say that happens more in his early work. But that must have been a challenge in putting together Pocket Full of Rain.)

KT: I have a lot more difficulty with pop-culture reference in something like Rocky, since Martin Kellerman uses a lot of Swedish references. You try translating a joke about a Swedish rapper! (Even worse, Kellerman has a lot of STOCKHOLM-specific references.) Jason's references are almost never to Norwegian pop culture, and the references to French pop culture are usually internationally well-known enough that it's no problem. In the next book he's doing there's a sequence where they discuss female French movie stars, but everyone knows Brigitte Bardot and Juliette Binoche.

As you point out some of his earlier books have references to Norwegian pop culture, but he and I worked on finding international equivalents. It was fine.

He's also cognizant that his work is being translated internationally now, so I'm guessing he'll avoid any too specific French references. But his cultural tastes are really very American, or for international work that is known in America. It's totally not a problem.

Amazon.com: Jason's comedy is pretty visual, with the deadpan two-shots and other moments of inaction that totally crack me up. But in some stories it's the dialogue that kills--for example, in Low Moon, "Early Film Noir", where the dead/resurrected husband keeps coming back with the same line again and again, or the awkward sexuality of "Emily Says Hello." I guess my question is, do those types of jokes translate pretty directly, or do they require some cultural tweaking and back-and-forth?

KT: It's pretty direct. Jason's dialogue is very straightforward (probably also because he's a native Norwegian working in French) so it's just a matter of finding a suitably deadpan equivalent in English. Any tweaking back and forth is usually finding the exact right tone, almost never with any confusion about cultural equivalents.

Amazon.com: Do you have a favorite story in Low Moon, and why is it your favorite?

KT: Each story has different qualities that I appreciate. I think the funniest moment in the book is in "&," the fat character's decision to kill one of his rivals as signaled by a microscopic, typically deadpan shift in his eyeline toward the roof above them from which he will soon dispatch a lethal projectile. Kind of Chuck Jones Wile E. Coyote moment. (See? Another U.S. reference!)

Thanks, Kim. Low Moon is on sale now.--Heidi

Queens of the Stone Age bandleader Josh Homme and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl are no strangers to collaboration, pooling their talents on several occasions, most notably on QOTSA’s 2004 album Songs for the Deaf. Now, Homme’s wife and ex-Distiller Brody Dalle (busy promoting her new outfit Spinnerette) has let the cat out of the bag on their most newsworthy venture yet – a trio comprising of Homme, Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Dalle revealed to Antiquiet.com that “[the project] is pretty amazing. Just beats and sounds like you’ve never heard before.” This star-studded collaboration has been on the cards for years, but now Homme and Grohl are taking a break from their respective day jobs and Led Zeppelin have shelved their plans to reunite, it has time to develop. The three main players are remaining tight-lipped, and very few people are thought to have heard the sessions. Back in 2005, however, Grohl told MOJO magazine that “the next project that I’m trying to initiate involves me on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones playing bass. That’s the next album. That wouldn’t suck." If this album ever does surface, there’s no question it'll be one of the most hotly anticipated releases in rock.

Here's a video of QOTSA performing at Glastonbury 2002, with Dave Grohl on drums:

--Gillian @ SoundUnwound

SoundUnwound's editorial team write about the latest big music news and quirky stories which catch the eye. We'll be posting a selection of these news stories on Chordstrike every week; for much, much more, visit SoundUnwound.com, the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.

 
(From the fourth Moomin volume, recontextualized as Steampunk invention here.)

Drawn & Quarterly has been doing the world a great public service by reprinting the entirety of Tove Jansson's Moomin comics in oversized hardcover books. These comics haven't been available in English since their debut in the London Evening News in the 1950s. D&Q has just released book four, and it demonstrates the depth of Jansson's talent that this volume is just as entertaining and imaginative as the previous three volumes.

Jansson was Finnish, and her Moomins are benign hippo-looking troll creatures. The Moomins are a family unit, accompanied by a cast of revolving secondary characters including, erm, Snorkmaiden. The sense of family is strong in these comic strips, even when they argue. Also strong is the sense of humor, which varies from slapstick to a more subtle undercurrent of wry amusement about the world. Absurdity also plays a part, as when Moominpapa tries to reassemble two broken household appliances and winds up building a time machine instead. What makes the whole world of the Moomins work, however, is something kind of old-fashioned and yet sincere: love and affection not only for each other but for the world. Although conflict and plot complication based on conflict exist in Jansson's universe, she also manages to make the stories work because of themes like friendship and working together to solve problems. This sounds like it could be preachy or didactic, but it isn't--it's just hardwired into the subtext.

Because of these qualities, there's a pleasure in reading Moomin that's somewhat unique. We're battered all day by various types of white noise and by all kinds of blaring media, from television to video games. Moomin has a restorative, calming effect while never being maudlin, sentimental, or boring. (Indeed, Jansson's eye for satire can be sharp and unforgiving, within the context of her beloved characters.)

The specific adventures set out in book four are: Moomin Goes Wild West, Snorkelmaiden Goes Rococo, The Conscientious Moomin, Moomin and the Comet, and Moomin and the Golden Tail. From time travel to, well, Moomin growing a golden tail, these stories seem timeless and of universal interest. Kids will love them, but parents will get distinct enjoyment out of them as well.

I was particularly amused by the Wild West and Rococo stories, in part because they spoof and play with such differing styles. The Wild West adventure has hilarious set-pieces with lassoes, water pistols, camping, and saloons. I don't know the source of Janssen's inspiration here, but her kind-hearted parody is spot-on. Moomin Papa going into the saloon and saying "I'm two-gun Moomin. I want a room." only to have the bartender say "Oh yes. Shall we register you as Moomin Papa and family?" totally undercutting Moomin Papa's bravado, and forcing him to ask for "A small shot of 'coyote's death'" exemplifies the little touches that make me like this comic strip so much. In the Rococo story, the brash send-ups of Wild West toughness are replaced by raucous jabs at false romanticism, full of powdered wigs and fancy dress balls. Here, Jansson shows herself equally at home with the conventions of a totally different era. In both cases, she does play off of cliches, but to great effect. (Granted, when it comes to Native Americans in the Wild West strip, she's not quite able to cast off stereotyping...)

In her native Finland, Jansson's creation is the equivalent of Mickey Mouse here or Bugs Bunny in the United States--beloved and a national institution. It's wonderful that English-language readers can now collect the entire comic strip in such attractive editions.

On behalf of everyone at Wag Reflex, have a great Fourth of July weekend.

Photo from Somethin' Else's photostream.

--Spanno

British actress Mollie Sugden, who played "Mrs. Slocombe" in the classic sitcom Are You Being Served, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 86. Her blue-haired character was one of the cornerstones of the Grace Brothers department store alongside John Inman's "Mr. Humphries."  Watch a clip from the show below or on YouTube, or you can read the Telegraph story. --David

It's Friday again! And this time we've got the whole long weekend ahead of us. As we all planned our 4th of July festivities, a lot of the focus was around food (of course). Here are a few patriotic AND tasty links the Al Dente editors obsessed about this week:

• Wilton's fabulously firework-y cupcake is reason enough to celebrate.
• More cupcake genius: 4th of July cupcakes with built-in ice cream cones!
• Turn to Gourmet's Red, White, and Blue Showcase for 16 colorful recipes.
• We're still not getting over the beauty of this red, white, and blue berry tart--plus, white balsamic custard?!
• Start a tradition of "Food Independence Day."
• Sweet! Red, white, and blue parfaits!
• A little patriotic pousse-café...but how does it taste?
• To fill the weekly Jell-O link quota: stained-glass Jell-O stars!
• Just call us when the fire's hot: Whiskey grilled baby back ribs.
• For those who prefer the oven to the grill: Sticky Hoisin roast chicken wings.
• Let's Bake Some Cake has some 4th of July Fondant Fun with these amazing cupcakes:

Photos courtesy of Let's Bake Some Cake.

While you're out and about, reading up on food news, don't miss our top picks for 4th of July kitchen essentials:

• Cuisinart ICE-30 ice cream machine
• Strathwood corn grilling kit
• Oxo corn stripper
• Weber Q portable outdoor gas grill
• Strathwood barbecue tool set
• Emile Henry pie dish
• Outdoor melamine tableware
• Bodum iced-tea glasses

Did I miss a not-to-be-missed foodie link from this past week? Add a comment or tweet at me!

Have a great 4th!

--KitchenMaus

In honor of Independence Day, Amazon MP3 is offering a sharable code to download a free copy of any version of America's national anthem, "Star Spangled Banner" -- and there are a lot of them. I went digging through the list of songs and found everything from Jimi Hendrix's classic Woodstock rendition to Molly Ringwald's Mickey Mouse Club version. There are over 600 to choose from!

But before you go perusing, browsing, and downloading, make sure you enter the code (JULY4MP3) into your account (that's the part that makes it free). You can find simple instructions on how to do that here. But do it quick--it all goes away, much like the fireworks, BBQ stains, and sleeping in, on July 6th (ok, so maybe the BBQ stains will stick around a bit longer).

It's limited to one per customer, but if you want to share the FREEdom with someone else, send them to Amazon MP3where they can download their own favorite version, as well.

Have a safe and fantastic 4th of July, and happy birthday, America!

--Alan Wiley

When Al Dente blog reader Pat Hawn recently shared her inexpensive regional foodie finds, I was thrilled to learn that one of them, Whoopie Pies, originated in Pennsylvania Dutch country, an area I was planning on visiting this summer.

I stopped in at the Lancaster County Farmers Market just a few days ago, eager to scout out regional delicacies including the famed Whoopie Pie. And I found that homespun treat at J & R Baked Goods.

The chocolate pies had been snapped up earlier in the day, so I settled for the pumpkin, an option I might have considered out-of-the-ordinary, had I not just read Micheline Maynard's New York Time's article "Whoopie! Cookie, Pie or Cake, It's Having It's Moment". In it Maynard tracks the recent migration of Whoopie Pies from a regional Amish delicacy (it's also native to Maine, go figure) to bakeries across America, singling out several of these newer purveyors including Chicago's Fraiche Bakery Café, where the two most popular flavors are chocolate and pumpkin.

One look at a Whoopie Pie and you know right off the bat that it's not a pie at all. It is, rather, two rounds of cake with a fluffy, gooey filling that's eaten in-hand like a cookie. And my pumpkin Whoopie Pie was yummy. If your neighborhood bakery hasn't discovered the Whoopie Pie, you can find them online at specialty food stores including Dean & Deluca or Hancock Gourmet Lobster Company.

Thanks again, Pat, for passing this tip along. If anyone knows of other cheap and fun foodie souvenirs from the farmers market or the grocery store, let me know.

--Tracy Schneider

For more details about the trailer and its related contest, see her blog.

(Thanks, The Book Girl Reviews!)

Favorite summer reads... Sideshow
This week, thankfully, I was handed a copy of Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical, a book of short stories for young adults that had weirdly been off my radar. It's everything that a YA book should be--funny, heartbreaking, attuned to the plight of the outsider. Each of these stories features a different aspect of the old-time circus sideshow, and that gives the authors a chance to play around with isolation, fear, and identity in interesting ways. Plus, it's a scary amazing line-up of fiction writers and graphic novelists. Aimee Bender's "The Bearded Girl" and Shawn Cheng's graphic story of a tricky shadow puppet troupe were stand-out favorites for me.

Quick links...
Finding Wonderland discusses Brit author Malorie Blackman, providing a nice intro to her work, especially Dead Gorgeous.

School Library Journal interviews Rebecca Stead, author of another stellar summer book, When You Reach Me, a comedy/SciFi/tween drama that defies the standard YA/middle grade formulas.

Siobhan Dowd posthumously wins the Carnegie Medal for Bog Child.

Good Morning America plugs "Hot Summer Reads", including Fragile Eternity, Along for the Ride, Surface Tension, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, and The Girls' Guide to Rocking.

Little Willow suggests So Punk Rock: And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother, and Paul (that's our Paul) reviews The Ask and the Answer, the much-awaited sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Happy reading.--Heidi

One of the cool things about the Sin City Blu-ray disc is a feature they call Cine-Explore, which plays the theatrical cut accompanied by the Robert Rodriguez-Frank Miller commentary track and drops in picture-in-picture panels of either the original graphic novel, the green-screen shots before the special effects were added, or both. When the director is trying to re-create something on the page, this is a really interesting comparison. Looks like Watchmen is going to do something similar on Blu-ray, called Maximum Movie Mode. Watch the preview below or in our Watchmen store, where you can also learn about our Digital Bundle: pre-order the Blu-ray or two-disc DVD and watch the movie instantly on release day through Amazon Video On Demand. --David

I am beginning a new series of post pitting similar toys against each other in a kind of toy death match per-se.
Today we are looking at a new word that seems to be all over the news, "Glamping".  That would be, Glamor+Camping="Glamping".  That's right people, last year's "staycation" is this year's "glamping".

So who out there is glamping best in the world of toys?  Let's check out the competitors:

Contestant #1: First the very un-glamorous camping with the weebles.
Weebles Weegoaway Camper

Wobbling is not glam, and it certainly is not safe around a campfire.

Contestant #2-
The very "Euro" camping experiance, the Playmobil Family Camper

While it is very cute, I think it is more "Family" than Glam-ory.

Contestant #3- Camping on the "square":
The Lego City Camper

Well, he DOES have his surf board, that is a little cool and edgy, but I wouldn't say that it is "glamping"-worthy.  We are edging ever closer to the real glamp of it all.

Contestant #4
Well, it is pink, and it talks...but is it glamourous?
The Caring Corners - Happy Camper Talking RV

ok, so it has eyes, but it does fold out and some features include:

• Honk the horn to discover more than 100 activities, sounds, words, and songs about the outdoors
• Swings open to reveal a bedroom, cab sleeper, bathroom, and fully equipped kitchen
• Includes lots of surprises: a hidden doggy bed, detachable slide, removable captains chairs, fold-down TV and a grill that opens to barbeque
• Reinforces positive messages with the kitchen recycling area and bumper stickers that reward real-life good deeds
• Offers ideas for kids and families to explore nature with enclosed adventure passport

Now, this is closer but let's see what our last contestant has to offer...

Contestant #5
The Glamping winner, and still the heavyweight champion of all things "glam":
Barbie's Pink Glamour Camper

Was there ever any doubt really?  Who would win this competition but the Princess of Pink herself?  Barbie is so hot this year, you could fry a tiny little egg on her plastic, crazily arched feet.  The camper she had in the 70s is no more, but she has returned with a pink palace on wheels.  I mean, just take a gander at that toilet! Features include:

• Signature details like a pink pop-out tent with glam chandelier
• Sleep under the stars in the super-cool sleeping bag and fold-out bed
• Sound features include music, sizzling cooking, flushing toilet and chirping crickets.
• Camper moves on four wheels, folds out for fun and folds up for self-contained play!

because what you really need when camping is a chandelier! Duh!

Have a happy 4th of July and Toy Whimsy will return on Monday the 8th with even more great toy news, ideas, and features!

--Laura McMullan

In my very first Omnivoracious post (“Best Way to Make a Garden? Make a Garden Library”), I talked about how I'd populated my garden with plants I'd fallen in love with in books. Truthfully, it was more lust than love that drove me to plant a lot of what now greets me at home, and many of them first gave me sweaty palms in Thomas Hobbs's Jewel Box Garden, his follow-up to Shocking Beauty. (In fact, I'd wager a lot of gardeners first gasped over echeverias--those dazzlingly architectural tender succulents that come in a rainbow of pastels--when they got a look at his Vancouver, B.C., garden's exquisite succulent wall).

Hobbs is a hoot. He characterizes his relationship with plants thus: "Unknowingly, I allowed plants to enslave me as their spokesperson, caretaker and pimp." When I ran into him at a gardening conference last year and mentioned--not quite as casually as I'd planned--that I considered The Jewel Box Garden to be the single biggest influence on my gardening style, he laughed, slung his arm over my shoulders, and declared, "We should live together!"

Sadly, it didn't work out (seems he was kidding--drat!), but I still love to virtually visit his world, particularly the Jewel Box, which hasn't left my bedside bookshelf since the book arrived in early '06. Sometimes--especially if I'm drifting off to sleep and trying to trade visions of spreadsheets and XML for some fantastic plantiness--I just soak in the pictures. Hobbs's flair for garden drama still gives this failed actress shivers. He's passionate about the value of making our wildest imagined worlds real, and his Jewel Box opens with a chapter called "Life, as we dream it could be."

He approaches the entire act of garden-making from the point of view of an artist ("Think of your garden, no matter how small, as an exhibition space"). But for Hobbs, it's not about just decorating. It even goes beyond creating gardens as a restorative oasis from the craziness of our larger lives. He dares us to "look deeper and find the door to your well of creativity. Access the scary side of your personality." He delivers his most practical advice on setting the stage through hardscaping, livening up your soil, and keeping your plants healthy with an aura of magic ("Stop thinking of yourself as a gardener and become an artistic, psychic liaison between plant and animal"). This sentence in particular resonated in my gut like a gong: "As I putter around in the garden, I like to envision one current going out of me and a different current coming in. I deliberately try to connect to something, and that is why my garden stops traffic."

Rereading this marvelous book last night, I realized that Hobbs had not only had a profound influence on my gardening style, but on my entire philosophy of gardening as creative, spiritually significant play with plants. When I'm grooving in the garden, I'm in that state of flow, and I can feel the plants flowing right back. (I have no doubt that's major factor for why my garden not only feels wonderful and keeps me sane, but has started to attract some exciting attention from some of the very authors and photographers whose work has inspired me.)

The Jewel Box Garden is published by Timber Press, a jewel of a publisher based in Portland, Oregon, devoted entirely to marvelous, information-rich books about plants. In the coming weeks, you're going to be hearing a lot more about Timber from me, as I revive my garden library series with a slew of profiles from many of my favorite Timber authors. Lots more fodder for those leafy dreams. --Mari Malcolm

Recently, readers received a reminder from Dr.Hinson about the dangers of summer heat. When dealing with the summer, there is another common seasonal problem for pets--insect bites. While usually not fatal, insect bites can have serious consequences. Most often, dogs, and to a lesser extent cats, are bitten or stung on the face by insects (such as bees) that they were trying to bite. When this happens, your pet may initially yelp. Most of the time, a very small sting or bite is barely noticed on their face or neck due to its small size and most owners think nothing of it. However, within an hour the pets face may become greatly swollen, to the point where they can hardly open their eyes. In some cases they may even have difficulty breathing.

A common challenge in evaluating pets with a “suddenly swollen face” is determining if the problem is truly caused by an insect bite or a snake bite. Locating two puncture sites would be more consistent with a snake bite; however, this is not always an easy task. Most dogs have a lot of fur and the swelling at the site of the bite complicates the evaluation a bit. In some cases, the cause of swelling cannot be determined and a diagnosis has to be made on response to symptomatic treatment and blood work abnormalities.

If you ever find that your pet suddenly has a swollen face contact your veterinarian immediately. In most cases they will see you right away because of the urgent nature of the problem. Some pets may need to spend the day for observation, while others will need longer care at your veterinarians.

Photo from Mad Mag's photostream.

--Dr. Hamilton
---------------------
Dr. Hamilton is an oncology resident at Michigan State's Animal Cancer Care Clinic and a regular contributor to Wag Reflex.

Disclaimer Regarding Veterinary Information   

I think it’s un-American to have a Fourth of July weekend shindig without good snacks. And sorta sad, too. Especially when the below recipe for Pretty Party Pinwheels (from Party Snacks, 2008, Harvard Common Press) is darn easy to make, scrumptious, and colorful, with its combination of cream cheese, spinach, tomatoes, and some spices to ensure your party isn’t tasteless. Of course, it does flip in green for blue in the traditional fourth color scheme, but maybe you can serve it on a blue patter? One thing that’s for sure--your guests will love these, and you don’t have to stress out much when making them. That’s a step on the road to party success on any weekend.

Pretty Party Pinwheels
Makes about 70 pinwheels

Ingredients:
2 jalapeño chilies, quartered (leave the seeds in if you like it hotter)
4 green onions, coarsely chopped
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 of a 0.4-ounce package ranch dressing mix
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas
5 cups loosely packed fresh spinach, washed and dried
5 to 7 Roma tomatoes, seeded and very thinly sliced
Salsa or Louisiana-style hot sauce, for serving

Directions:
1. Put the jalapeño and onions in a food processor, and process for 3 to 5 seconds, until well chopped. Add the cream cheese, dressing mix, and pepper, and process again until all is well mixed.

2. Using a spatula or butter knife, spread the mixture evenly over one side of each flour tortilla. Add 1/2 cup spinach and a few tomato slices on top of the mixture on each tortilla.

3. Roll up each tortilla, making a tight roll. Once all are rolled and stacked on a plate, cover with plastic wrap or foil and put them in the fridge to chill for about an hour.

4. Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice each rolled tortilla into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Arrange attractively on a platter. Serve with salsa or a bottle of Louisiana-style hot sauce on the side.

--A.J. Rathbun

Catcher in the Rye Sequel Blocked
Guess Holden Caufield will remain a callow youth for a while longer--at least in the U.S.  A federal judge ruled late yesterday that the J.D. Salinger offensive was “likely to succeed on the merits of its copyright case" against Fredrik Colting, author of  60 Years Later--a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. Colting plans to appeal the decision. His book will be released in Europe later this summer. [PW]

Governor's Book on Ice
The Observer reports that the scandal-ridden South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has been given the heave-ho by publisher Sentinel. The right-leaning imprint owned by Penguin had planned to publish the Governor's book on fiscal conservatism in spring of 2010. He has been released from his contract. [The New York Observer]

Everything Matters When the Clock Is Ticking
Author and Daily Beast critic Taylor Antrim takes a closer look at Ron Currie Jr.'s new novel Everything Matters! and the burgeoning literary genre of "pre-apocalyptic" novels.

Listen to Currie's thoughts on the "multiverse", "borrowing" from favorite authors, and more in our Omni podcast.  And in case you missed it earlier, check out our own Daphne Durham's take on the novelvs. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain.  [The Daily Beast]

--Lauren