The What, I’m in San Francisco Again? Roundup

Historian Frederic Wakeman has passed away.
Prognostication has begun for the next round of Nobels.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Karen R. Long talks with Alison Bechdel.
Maud Newton reviews Aminatta Forna’s Ancestor Stones.
Scott wonders if giving Murakami the Frank O’Connor Prize was a way to build up the award’s reputation.
David Orr returns to the NYTBR‘s pages and takes on Stephen Fry’s poetry.
Peter Lurie’s “The Rush to Judgment” (via wood s lot)
Matt Cheney, Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer seek your recommendations for The Best American Fantasy.
The Telegraph has printed excerpts from Michael Palin’s 1976 diaries. Lots of inside dirt, including a surprise revelation that Graham Chapman was into ichthyophilia, but no fish slapping dance.
Roald Dahl’s 5 Books to Take to a New Planet. (via So Many Books)
Colin Burrow has an interesting article on John Donne and literary biography.
The difficulties of food critics photographing meals. Given low light conditions and the need for a flash, there is nothing surreptitious in taking out a camera and snapping your red snapper. These critics may as well paint their faces, wear a neon polyster suit, and scream, “I am a food critic and I can write this off!” just after being served the meal.
Publisher L. Gordon Crovitz on the new WSJ: “The product span of this Journal is not going to be 50 years. It´s not going to be 10 years. It’ll be closer to 5, or maybe closer to 2 or 3.”
Also from Editor & Publisher: It looks like the Gray Lady underreported the “Gettysburgh” Address. The Times regrets the error.
Gnarls Barkley, “Gone Daddy Gone.” Crazed animated fleas and more.
CultureSpace on Olivier Assayas.
Miss Manners meets casual sex?
Publishers target bloggers, in part because they publish too many books and can get more of a guarantee from them. Then again, if you’re getting an inarticulate response from a MySpace page, is this really a good way to go about publicizing? (via Bookninja)
Pictures from The Golden Encyclopedia. (via The Beat)
Terry Teachout on YouTube.
An interesting inner-city London reading campaign.