Publishers Lunch just emailed its "Lunch Weekly," and my friend's book deal was again highlighted:

28 year-old writer David Yoo's young adult novel GIRLS FOR BREAKFAST, a comic, biting and irreverent coming-of-age story about a Korean teen growing up in an alarmingly homogenous white suburb, as he tries to come to terms with his neurotic love and obssession for girls and his ambivalence towards his ethnicity, compared to THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and HIGH FIDELITY, to Krista Marino at Delacorte, in a quick sale, for two books, by Steven Malk at Writers House (NA)

Now that the title is out there, I told him to hurry up and buy the domain name, and he grabbed it today, along with his own name (Dave, David was snapped up a few months back). So if you should be interested, down the road you can look him up at http://www.daveyoo.com or http://www.girlsforbreakfast.com .

Has everyone out there bought your name? You'd be crazy not to, if it's still available. For $15-20/year (depending who you go with), you can grab it for life. Do it now. If you want to see if it's available, Affinity has an ad at the bottom of my author page, or go here directly. You can can see what's still availbe in one click.

(By the way, that missing apostrophe on Publishers Lunch is their fault. That's their freaking name.)

I just added a big raft of material to "The Columbine Almanac," particularly Part 4: Specialized Sites.

I found a few great photo series from the Rocky Mountain News, got some 911 transcripts and tapes. (Be cautious with all both the tapes and the photos. They are still so jarring, had me balling all over again.)

Several other links are added as well, and I discovered why the link to Time's great December 1999 cover story was no longer working: they charge now, and set up new urls. I linked to the new urls if you feel like paying, or want to get the precise publication info to look it up at the library.

HERE's the most important new addition, though: 

I found links to all the major reports, including the FBI Report: "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective." Few people even realize this report exists, but it is THE DEFINITIVE WORK on school shooters to-date. (If only the media, the ridiculous media would shine as bright a spotlight on the truly important developments ...)

(One crucial point about this report, though: Columbine was a very special case (an anomaly in many ways), so be aware that not all of it applies to Columbine. However, much does, and many readers are interested in the larger picture of school shooters anyway.)

The FBI summit on the shooters was organized shortly after Columbine by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mary Ellen O'Toole, who all my sources tell me is one of the brightest minds in the world on crime psychology. She gathered several of the top shrinks in the world for a summit in Leesburg, VA which lead to the 52-page report.

Also, if you're looking for world-class experts on Columbine, the psychology of violence and or school shooters, see page 52, where the "Contributing Experts" are named, along with contact info. I have worked with many of these people, and they are a national (and international) treasure. But please only contact them if you're doing really hardcore research. (And the FBI always implores me to point out that the conference was already in the planning stages before Columbine, but that fast-tracked it. This is true.)

There is also a CNN story summarizing the FBI report and its release here.

I've got lots more to add to the Almanac, and will continue doing so over the next few weeks. If something you're interested in is lacking, let me know and I'll probably add it. There really is no good overall guide out there, unfortunately. Each news org just mainly links to its own stuff. Yahoo Full Coverage has much of the material, but just try to find it. You have to search by date for almost all of it.

More on last night's "For Love or Money" in a bit. (That guy!) But I saw it through to the end this time, after being screwed by an annoying scheduling ploy the previous week (the show runs an hour and eight minutes, as part of this new Biggie-sized programing crap, but they failed to alert the Tivo people). 

So I get to the end, and noticed this printed disclaimer just before the credits:

The prize, which totals $1,000,000 is payable in a financial annuity based over forty years, or the contestant may choose to receive the present cash value of the foregoing annuity.

What! So they're giving the winner about half a million dollars. That's a considerable difference. And how freaking cheap, for a show that's making millions per week. Why the hell would they skimp on that? And then lie about it?

Now I realize that all the lotteries feature the same glaring lie, but I was under the impression that game shows and then reality shows actually provide the money claimed. Does this mean that when you win ten grand on Jeopardy!, they hand you a check for five? I really don't think so.

And a nother thing: It has never ceased to amaze and disgust me that the press goes right along for the ride on that lottery thing. What a bunch of pansies. I would refuse to report the fake numbers.

By that logic, I could cut my entire annual budget in half. Just ring up $100 in groceries, hand the clerk a fifty and if he gives me any lip, explain "Oh, that's the net present value of the hundred. I was going to pay it out over forty years--did you want it all today? In a lump sum? Well then you're not really entitled to the future value are you? Come on!" Clerks these days.

The new Rugrats movie features a Clash song.

Ugh.

Remember when they were so ... revolutionary ... that Epic refused to release their first album ("The Clash") stateside for several years, and only then with several of the offending songs (like "White Riot") eliminated?

Or when they sang of actual revolution and yearned for the moment it would swallow them whole? How did you feel the first time you heard the line (sung with relish):  "London is drowning-and I live by the river"?

And now they're considered sufficiently sanitized for a Rugrats movie.