In Brief: It's February!

Here is your regular Sunday dosage of interesting items, from Blogville and beyond:

• Fred Himebaugh abruptly stopped blogging last fall when his wife had a cancer recurrence. In a post this week, Fred passes along the news that Julie is recovering slowly and thus far seems free of cancer after treatment. Please say the prayer or think the good thought of your choice in their direction. Fred, here's one Catholic who will be piling up the Hail, Mary's on your behalf. [The Fredösphere]


• Laila Lalami (the blogger formerly known as Moorish Girl) is on a Fulbright in Morocco. She is no supporter of American foreign policy in the Middle East, but she recently defended her fellow Americans in Paris. Apparently, many people think that no one in the United States opposes the policy of our country's President. [Laila Lalami]


• We are looking forward to the Jasper Johns exhibit, which opened at the National Gallery of Art last weekend. Tyler Green takes a look at what has been left out of this show -- the influence of Magritte -- and how it may be skewing the presentation of this decade of Johns's career. [Modern Art Notes]


• In an article about Google's digital library project, a sharp eye noticed an error that appears to be a computer coding artifact. In The New Yorker, print version! It sent me scrambling for this week's copy of the magazine, and there it was, on p. 31, near the top of the third column. [Languagehat]


• This bath time toy -- a powder added to your child's bath water turns it into a gelatinous slime, then easily dissolved by another packet -- just looks too frightening to let my children use. However, I am sure that they would LOVE it. [Boing Boing]


• Steve Hicken reviews eighth blackbird's Strange Imaginary Animals, a disk I reviewed here last week. [Sequenza 21]


• Tim Munro, flutist for eighth blackbird, writes about the group's rehearsals with vocalist Lucy Shelton, in preparation for performances of Pierrot lunaire and a new song cycle by Roberto Sierra. [thirteen ways]


• A while back, I noted a rare appearance of independent film actress Adrienne Shelley (a small role in Factotum). A short time after that, it was reported that Shelley had committed suicide. It turns out that she did not kill herself, she was murdered: she died because a construction worker punched her in the face, after she told him he was being too noisy, and tried to pass it off as suicide by staging the hanging in her bathroom. It's all too horrible. [Reel Fanatic]