BAD sign

(in our small Swedish Signs for Fridays Series)

Fourth Plinth

(Plinth is a nice word. And Fourth Plinth is even nicer. It's also quite nice to say it twice. Fourth Plinth Fourth Plinth. Except then you feel as if you have something wrong with your tongue) Trafalgar Square has four plinths. (Sorry. Why are you telling us this again?) The plinths are these enormous pedestals that stand at the four corners of the square. Three of them hold statues of George IV, Henry Havelock, and Sir Charles James Napier. (No, seriously, why?) The fourth plinth (fourth plinth fourth plinth) on the northwest corner was going to hold a statue of William IV, but they ran out of money. And then no one could agree which hero or king should go up there. So, instead, they didn't put anyone there. So the fourth is vacant. These plinths are usually reserved for statues of Kings and Generals but for the next 100 days, there will be real live people standing on the fourth plinth as living statues, taking it in turns, for an hour at a time, (even if it's 2AM and pouring rain). Jason Clark, 41, an NHS nurse from Brighton, was the second person to stand on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth Anyone can apply (but you have to live in the UK) and you can watch what people are up to here on the live video. There's a warning on the site that they may be up to all kinds of anythings... (one man dressed up as a poo). Read more here. (I think, due to them being the most famous feature of the square, wouldn't the most appropriate statue to put on the fourth plinth be of a great big giant pigeon?)

PS random odd fact

random fact for today it will be... shortly... (in America at least) 12:34:56 7/8/9 and all over the world, in a couple of months, it will be 09:09:09 09/09/09 What does it all mean? Nothing and now i have a headache.

"Best kids' books ever"

Nicholas Kristof of the NYT has made his list of the top 10. His kids have too. Needless to say they aren't the same. Not even close. I don't think I'm even going to try and make my own top 10 list ... although I will say (because it's one of my all time favorites and I can't help it) ... what about Winnie The Pooh FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE? Which really only goes to prove one thing: making such a list is a fool-hardy and impossible task. Thank heavens. There are far too many wonderful children's books out there to squish into a list of 10. (Why do you have to choose anyway? Can't all of them be your favorites?) Plus, even if you could choose, no one will ever agree. Which is just the way it should be. If books are like friends, then it makes sense you're going to have some that are your particular favorites. Ones that may be entirely over-looked by someone else. It's individual and intimate, the conversation that goes on between the reader and the book. And have you noticed how passionately you will defend your favorite book, just like you would a friend? But, just out of interest... What book would you have included in the list that wasn't?

fireworks on the hudson

The best sign in Stockholm

The Stomatol sign in Söder. How cool is that? Other cool Swedish signs: check them out here. (don't actually speak swedish. as such. Just pretending. I like it so much in fact--pretending and signs--that I'm going to start a small series of Swedish signs for Fridays... this is the first...)

world magazine interview & photo

World Magazine, in their Books Issue, interviewed me and did a fun article about how I came to write in the first place and what brought me to the US. (You can read here.) Which was very nice of them. (Thank you World Magazine and Marvin Olasky!) The photo was taken standing by a window at the Tribeca Barnes and Noble one day last month. The photographer (James Allen) was great--and came with big lights and fancy reflectors and lots of leads and very large cameras to photograph me while I was at an event (I think Barnes and Noble now believe this is how I always arrive, with paparazzi and lights). A friend says it looks like I'm balancing on a building ledge and how did I get there; another says it looks like I have NYC at my feet; and my sister says what's that big round elbow growth you've got? In Other Reviews... HOW TO GET MARRIED turns up as a June pick for the older sibling here (they can't say enough good things about the book so I love them I love them I love them); and THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GRANDMAS AND GRANDPAS is a Summer Reading Selection from none other than Grandparents.com (and they should know) which you can read here. And The Witchita Eagle says of BEING A PIG IS NICE: "dirty, slow, noisy, messy, goofy kids everywhere will love this book" and you can read more here and it's also featured in a piggy round up here.

succinctness

"I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

— Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662), Lettres provinciales, letter 16, 1657 Reminds me what that giant of succinctness, the Revd. John Stott, says. For every minute in the pulpit he spends an hour preparing. If you miss one word, you're lost. A bit like poetry. And (good) picture books. (All I can say is there are A LOT of preachers and public speakers out there spending 90 hours or more a week on their sermons...)