Ann Taylor Cook, aka the Gerber Lady, has been using her postpartum postergirling to move copies of her first novel. Cook said that she sold 10 books in an hour when the Gerber drawing was on the table next to her. The 77-year old newcomer plans to start drooling and repeatedly banging her spoon into a bowl for future in-store appearances.

Harlan Ellison’s copyright case against AOL has been revitalized by an appeal. The 69-year old curmudgeon declared that his blood pressure hadn’t dropped and that he would “beat the shit out of those motherfuckers, tearing their obsidian sphincters out with my bare hands.” When asked how he would unleash this violence before a judge and jury, Ellison offered no explanations, but he called the journalist asking this question “a parvenu of the first order.”

A “quirkyalone party” has been planned in New York for Valentine’s Day. Several dateless thirtysomethings plan to attend, crying for hours into a collective cistern, and then spending the afternoon dwelling on their misery rather than ignoring the silly holiday (like most single people). The Quirkyalone label that has now been trademarked. An I Am Quirkyalone! Hear Me Wilt! affirmation video can be found in Wal-Mart in August.

The Guardian reports that, far from being a dour bore and a real pissant, Immanuel Kant was a wild and crazy guy. According to three new biograhies, Kant was actually known as “the Robert Downey, Jr. of his day.” So committed was Kant to debauchery that attentions are now being paid to a recently discovered treatise called “Critique of Crystal Meth.”

New census results reveal that Americans would rather curl up with a good book than surf the Web. It was also reported that book bloggers would prefer this to, but that most of them could not refrain from posting links because “their jobs were unbelievably boring.”

And happy birthday, Sarah!