Friday Hangovers

• John Freeman serves up some gobbledygook; Ed and Moles call him on it. He seems to be missing the point that when people are comparing these shows to novels, they're actually paying them a complement, you know, saying that they are elevating TV to a higher level. The inference is that novels are still our standard of excellence for storytelling. (I don't actually buy this logic myself, but the novel is one of the most complex storytelling artforms we have, so we naturally tend to discuss it in those terms.) And I don't think it's true that no one reads novels anymore. So there.
• Another brilliant cartoon for writers over at Finding Wonderland: This is Your Brain on Revision. It pretty much sums up my weekend!
• Best obit ever: Count Gottfried von Bismarck. (Via Mr. McLaren.)
• Kelly kicks off a discussion on how people write -- literally.
• Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys is a Book Sense pick for August and he's put the first chapter online. As you'll recall, I adored it.
• Everyone loves the Araboolies musical.
• And finally (via Leila and Betsy), this disappointing statistic (it's that whole trying to save your loved ones/not icing them thing, I know it):

51%