URGENT: An important message from the Royal Navy

Schnabel, Strike, and Helvetica - Kurt Anderson over at Studio 360 has a short romp through New York with Helvetica director Gary Huswit. And, as you may have guessed, some bits on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and the ongoing writer’s strike.

Don’t Fear Starbucks - Contrary to popular belief, the mass reproduction of Starbucks coffeehouses has generally led to mom-and-pop shops being more profitable. While the number of Starbucks locations tripled between 2000 and 2005, the number of local coffeehouses did not decline, but jumped 40%. And when Starbucks opened six new stores in Omaha, all during 2002, business went up at every local coffeehouse.

Small is beautiful - the best new literary journals - A quick list of notable literary journals that have emerged over the last few years. (The Paris Review makes the list because of its reinvention in 2005.) With only seven entries, it is hardly comprehensive, but I love it if only for including A Public Space, my number one resource at the moment for discovering new writers.

Songza - Pretty much the better looking version of SeeqPod. In other words: browse for mp3s, play, collate, share.

Lastly, a sad note: Can atheists be parents? TIME Magazine reports on a New Jersey couple denied the right to adopt based on their lack of belief in a “Supreme Being”. (I place that phrase in quotes not out of derision, but out of befuddlement. The wife is a pantheist, which while not anywhere aligned with the conventional Christian perspective, certainly belies a strong spirituality. And isn’t that the point?)