links for 2008-06-29

I LOVE Terry Pratchett. I'd heard his name before but I hadn't read any of his books until I happened to pick up Good Omens a couple of years ago. Shortly thereafter, I loaned the book to a good friend of mine, who introduced me to the wonderful Discworld series. It was one of the saddest days of my life when I found out he has Alzheimer's. Thanks for the link to a terrific story.

Funny that the first poster should mention Good Omens, because I found that Terry Pratchett article via Neil Gaiman's blog:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/06/hollys-birthday-post.html

He's similarly critical of the headline:

"Have you ever had the odd feeling that a headline writer exists in an entirely different universe to the one that you live in? For example, you would expect an article headlined I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist, says fantasy author Terry Pratchett to be, perhaps, about how Terry Pratchett now thinks there is a god. The subtitle, The best-selling fantasy author grew up not believing in a supreme deity - until the day the universe opened up to him as he was preparing for another spell on a chat-show would also lead you to the same conclusion, demonstrating that the headline writer simply didn't bother to read the article, which begins

There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.

"Very odd, but also very Daily Mail."