So here I am in this huge resort/casino thing, and to get anywhere you have to wander by hundreds of gaming tables.  I’ve been watching the gamblers, and none of them seem to be having a good time.   They’re all grimly working away at whatever it is they’re doing. Why is that?  Any idea?

  The writer Lawrence Schoen has been collecting stories from writers about their most fabulous meals. I couldn’t decide what my most fabulous meal was, but I did make an attempt to describe my most fabulous dining experience.  Which lasted for over ten years, in two countries. Oh my god, the gumbo . . .

Here I am with the twelve brave Canadian writers who actually volunteered to have me run their workshop! They are a talented crew, and I expect that you’ll be hearing from some of them soon.

  So now S&P has downgraded US government bonds from AAA to AA+.  The result is that people are stampeding to buy them. Perhaps they remember that it was the ratings agencies who gave AAA ratings to sub-prime loans, and S&P who rated Ireland’s debt AAA until April Fool’s Day, 2009, and Spain as AAA […]