Dave Cullen's blog: Conclusive Evidence of My Existence

This blog is moving

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:20:59 GMT

My new blog home:

www.davecullenblog.com

After struggling with this Radio Userland blog software for (seven?) years, I finally got it up-to-date and swore I'd try to maintain it, but the thought kept gnawing at me: why?

I can't update it from the road--or even from my laptop in my livingroom--because this software works off the hard drive of the computer it's loaded on. And that's an aging computer, and the blog software grinds it to a halt.

Radio Userland is a dying platform, so I don't know what took me so long to jump ship. I always thought I'd have to convert all the old posts to a new blog--which I didn't know how to do--and set up new templates and blah, blah, blah.

I finally decided just to leave the old archives here and point to them, but start fresh. And the new templates are so much simpler than when I coded mine in html way back. So the new blog is up and running, and if all goes as intended, this will be the farewell post at this address.

The new address is pretty simple:

www.davecullenblog.com

See you there.

NurtureShock in Newsweek

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:15:10 GMT

Newsweek is running a fantastic daily series by NurtureShock authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.

Today's entry:

Can Extracurricular Activities Solve the Self-segregation Problem?

In American high schools today, it’s taken as a given that extracurricular activities bring students of different races together. What’s more, it’s on clubs and sports teams that the conditions of Allport’s Contact Theory are actually met – students are working together toward a single goal, rather than competing against each other.

Unfortunately, it isn't working out that way.

Clotfelter found that extracurricular activities were far from the desegregating force they should be. The average club was 39% less diverse than the school itself, meaning most of the clubs and sports teams were less integrated than the classrooms.

This book is turning much of what we know about kids upsided down. And the same for us adults that former kids grew into.

---

And congratulations to Ashley and Po for hitting #23 on the New York Times extended bestseller list their first week out. (Books often debut low because of a partial week of sales.) Judging by Amazon, they will be in the top 5 next week.

Follow me

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:08:12 GMT

I have been posting in a lot of different places the last year. Here are the biggest places you'll find me, other than this blog, in the order I visit them.

Friend or follow me on any/all:

THIS BLOG: Dave Cullen: Conclusive Evidence of My Existence

I've added them all to the left column.

I've been inactive on digg for awhile, so I never had many followers there. I could use a few.

Thanks.

This blog is up to date

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:15:05 GMT

Well it took most of the day, but I copied all the posts I made at my OpenSalon blog this year over to this blog.

This will return to being my main blog. I had some tech problems here. (I started this blog in 2001 or 2002, and I'm still stuck on the dreaded Radio Userland softward. Sometimes, it gives me fits.)

I only went back through this year, so there are some 2008 posts which you will only find on my OS blog.

---

FYI: to easily find this blog, go to my main site (davecullen.com) and click BLOG in the main nav bar.

I'm on Book TV (C-SPAN2) late tonight

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:45:59 GMT

SEPTEMBER 5, 2009 10:15PM

Book TV/C-SPAN2 is replaying Peter Seln's interview with me at the LA Times Book Fest again this weekend.

Apparently it just ran (they don't tell me--thank you facebook friends), and it's set again late tonight if you want to set your tivo. The network is C-SPAN2, and the show is called simply "Festival of Books"--and the description says it's me. It's showing at 3 a.m. my time (MDT), so I think that means 5 a.m. on the east coast, 2 a.m. on the west.

You can also watch it online via my site here. (The Rachel Maddow Show, BBC and lots of radio interviews are there, too.)

Laura Bush announces Texas Book Festival list--including me

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:45:02 GMT

SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 7:23PM

Laura Bush announced the line-up yesterday. It's quite a list, and according to the Dallas Morning News story, I'm not one of the headliners. They wrote:

Headlining authors include Buzz Aldrin, M rgaret Atwood, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Bryan Burrough, Jeanette Walls, Jonathan Safran Foer and Taylor Branch.

Maybe next book. Hahaha. The official announcment cited me this way:

News and political junkies will enjoy Douglas Brinkley, Howard Campbell, Bryan Carlile, and Dave Cullen.

That's still damn good company. And there 210 authors on the complete list. Laura Bush founded the festival in 1995. It runs Halloween weekend, October 1 and November 1, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

They have not actually given me my time slot yet. They have a page about me, which will probably have it soon, and I'll add it to my site.

I've got several other public events coming up this fall in/near LA, Chicago, Nashville, Helsinki, Grand Rapids and Denver (Longmont). And I'll be at the VA Book Fest next April (at UVa). I've got them all listed at the book-tour page of my site.

I was just invited to speak at my hometown library the afternoon of my 30th high school reunion on Oct. 3. It's in Elk Grove Village, in the NW suburbs of Chicago. RSVP at the facebook invite so Barnes & Noble knows how many books to bring. (No purchase required, of course. And these are all free.)

And California State University at Northridge just issued a press release today about my appearance there Sep 23.

Bad words

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:43:17 GMT

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 3:18AM

Aside from the ongoing use of "ironic" to mean "coincidental," the most offensive words of the moment are 1) "mindful," and 2) "better" as a verb. (To better yourself. Blech. There were better verbs already.)

Who the hell came up with mindful, and why has it grown so popular among pompous windbags? We must be mindful of the blah blah blah . . .

Who talks like that? Why would you want to? Our mind should be full of the concept in question? It doesn't even make much sense, and the awkwarness of it is offensive.

Whew. I feel better already.

Sony seems to have out-designed the Kindle

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:42:48 GMT

AUGUST 26, 2009 1:06AM

Sony announced the 7-inch touch-screen Daily Edition today. PC World said, "In portrait mode, about 30 to 35 lines of text will visible, making the experience very similar to that of a printed paperback book."

An ebook the size of a paperback, with the screen content of a paperback--and hopefully as easy on the eyes as a paperback. That was the crucial step.

(They have three new models: the Daily Edition is on the right.)

I won't know till I get one in my hands--they are due in time for Christmas--but it sounds like they are finally there.

I have always been baffled by the Kindle design team, foregoing touchscreen and instead using about 2/3 of the surface for keys and whatnot. So for a device that feels like a paperback, you get about 1/3 of the text of a paperback on every screen? Who the hell wants that?

(The obvious answer: a few hundred thousand Kindle buyers. But there are six billion of us. It will never be mass market until it's actually as good as the damn paper version.)

The gigantic problem with the new Sony: $400. Ack. Not exactly mass market territory.

But I'm glad more ebook readers are out there. And Sony is trying it out in three sizes, at three price points, presumably so the public can tell them what we want.

OK, all you early adopters. Get yourselves buying and get that price down

---

FYI: NYT has a bit of additional info--not much.

Update: the more I think about the cost, the more I shake my head. See the comments.

I think Sony and Amazon are making a huge mistake, which could cost them the whole market. PlasticLogic and BN could steal the whole market from under them for 30 years if they come in at 1/4 the cost and decide they'll make it up on volume. (They have also claimed to have a simpler/cheaper design/manufacturing process, I believe.)

I can hope.

Dolly and Charlie (Parton and Rose)

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:41:37 GMT

AUGUST 25, 2009 1:47PM

Charlie Rose just repeated an interview he did with Dolly in 2008. It was her first time on the show. About time.

Has anyone not yet figured out what a talent she is? Or what a fascinating person? She was a delight to listen to.

I loved her telling the story again, of seeing the town tramp as a young girl, remarking how pretty she was, and everyone saying, "Oh she's just trash!" Dolly thought, That's what I want to be. I want to be trash. Hahaha.

She said that a lot of people have said she might have been taken seriously much sooner and by more people if she'd looked more . . . serious, but what the hell. She likes it that way.

I like her, too. And I love a lot of the songs she wrote, especially the way she sung her own song, "I Will Always Love You."

Watch this book trailer: NurtureShock

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:41:02 GMT

AUGUST 22, 2009 12:29AM

I just got the nicest facebook msg from Ashley Merryman, who wrote NurtureShock with Po Bronson, who has had a string of bestsellers.

I have been interested in the book for months, but the msg made me watch the book trailer, and now I REALLY want to read it. (It's from my publisher, who promised me an advance copy. I'm chomping at the bit.)

I think I will be flipping straight to the chapter on siblings, after watching that video. I have eight. It's complicated. I don't expect to have kids of my own at this point, but I'm fascinated by them, and still reeling from my own childhood.

I never forgot the words of Tom Robbins, who ended (Still Life With Woodpecker? with the phrase: It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Wise man.)

This book is going to be huge. Their magazine stories leading up to it have won a ton of awards, so I expect it will live up. I hope so.

I also love the simple but appealing cover that communicates a great deal with so little.

I wondered aloud on my blog whether it might be from the same designer as my cover, and he emailed me saying that it was. He has the coolest blog on how he designs each cover. He said he'll be posting about that one very soon. Watch for it. The post on mine is here.

The Ashleigh Banfield experience

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:38:38 GMT

AUGUST 19, 2009 10:01AM

I did Ashleigh Banfield's show again today. This time, in a CNN studio.

That was fun--despite the content. I've gotten used to staring at a lens, pretending it's the Ashleigh's face. I guess she can see mine, and react to my facial cues, but I have no idea how she's responding to me. Maybe that's for the best. Hahaha.

Actually, that part would be good, but it would be horrible if I actually had to look at my own face and kept trying to adjust everything that made me gasp. They don't have a long enough show for that.

I got there early and sat in the chair for nearly an hour, much of it listening to the latest updates from the trial on the show, and I've been reading about it, too. Man, there there are some creepy paralells. It's very painful to see so many mistakes repeated.

In this case, the mom knew Castillo was obsessed with Columbine and even took a trip to visit the school and taped it. (She knew because she went with him.) He was in treatment at the time after a serious suicide attempt, and his doctors never found out. Ouch.

So much information that didn't get shared. The docs also didn't know he had obtained guns.

Some day, we'll learn.

The jury has some tough questions to answer on mental insanity. More on that later.

thanks, everyone.

As for the Ashleigh Banfield experience:

She was great. Very bright woman. Quick on her feet. I like her.

(I don't like most network anchors. That's saying a lot.)

If you saw the interview, let us know what you think. I have to run to O'Hare, but will try to check in via my iphone from there. I'll be back in Denver this afternoon.

I'll be on-camera on truTV Wednesday

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:33:46 GMT

AUGUST 18, 2009 7:50PM

I will be on Ashleigh Banfield's truTV (formerly CourtTV show) "Open Court" again tomorrow (Wed), between 9 and 9:30 a.m.

I extended my trip by a day, so I'll do it from the CNN studio in Chicago, and will be on-camera this time, with Ashley, via satellite.

I will again talk about Columbine, and connections to the Alvaro Castillo trial they are covering. The prosecution did rebuttal testimony Monday and today.

This is from an ABC News story today:

Mental health experts continued their testimony Tuesday in the Castillo trial and suggest the accused school shooter, who killed his father, is not psychotic. ...

A mental health expert for the prosecution testified that Castillo's responses and other evaluations suggest he knew exactly what he was doing that ill-fated day in August 2006.

"It was my best judgment that he did not have psychotic symptoms," UNC Psychiatrist Karen Graham testified Monday.

But defense experts disagree . . .

I'll be on CourtTV Monday

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:32:41 GMT

AUGUST 14, 2009 12:47AM

I will be on Ashleigh Banfield's CourtTV show "Open Court" Monday, 8/17 at 9:15 am EDT.

I will still be on vacation with the family, but phoning it it. (They'll put my pic on the screen--the one on this page--and a map of where I am, on vacation in a tiny rural town, which seems slightly weird to me. )

FYI, CourtTV is now officially named TruTV. I believe Ashleigh's show is called "In Session."

The network wants me on to talk about Columbine, and connections to the Alvaro Castillo trial they are covering, which should go to the jury early next week.

Here is some background the producer sent me about the case (I assume it's copy from their website. I didn't write it, I'm just passing it along):

The defendant was 18 years old in August 2006 when he allegedly murdered his father, Rafael Huezo Castillo, and then drove the family minivan to his former high school and opened fire. That attack left two students with minor injuries. Alvaro Castillo was obsessed with Columbine and even sent an email to the principal of Columbine stating, "In a few hours you will probably hear about a school shooting in North Carolina. I am responsible for it. " He even traveled to Colorado to drive by the school and homes of the Columbine shooters.

In the dark

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:32:01 GMT

AUGUST 12, 2009 1:07AM

Crap. I knew I should have replaced the lightbulbs in my kitchen light fixture when the second one went. But I get so sick of getting up on the counter, unscrewing the thing, finding new bulbs and screwing them in. It takes at least two minutes, but it involves balancing and finding things.

Something's wrong with my wiring, I think. I go through at least 30 bulbs a year. It wears me down. Daily maintenance grinds me down.

Sunlight works most of the time in the summer, so for the last couple months, I've gotten by with the hall light when I need to light the kitchen up at night.

Tonight, it went, too. (The second bulb in that fixture.)

Ugh. My life just seems to slide further into disrepair every day. One day I'll get that missing window in my car replaced. I really need to report that robbery.

How do other people deal with this shit?

Sept 7 Update:

Believe it or not, I stayed in the dark quite awhile, and finally replaced them about a week ago. Sometimes. I just don't know.

Patterns of mass murder, but no profile

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:30:44 GMT

AUGUST 5, 2009 6:46PM

We have learned one thing for sure:

There is no single profile of spree killers or other mass murderers. They come from all different classes, ethnicities, geographies, backgrounds, etc.

But most do share certain traits, and the shooter at the fitness center in Bridgeville, PA yesterday fit each of them:

- They rarely snap. Most plan their attack for at least a few days, but often much longer. It tends to be a gradual, evolutionary decision, not a sudden reaction to one event. This killer* "planned the attack for months" according to the NY Times story referencing his blog.

- The vast majority are men.

- Most have experienced what they percieve to be a major loss or failure. This guy complained on his blog about 25 years without a girlfriend, and nine without sex.

“I actually look good,” he wrote Dec. 29, 2008. “I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me — over an 18- or 25-year period. That is how I see it. Thirty million is my rough guesstimate of how many desirable single women there are."

The leap from that sense of loss to opening fire on a room full of innocent people is tough for most of us to understand. It will likely be a long time before we see the full picture of this guy, and can piece his particular motives together. But that sense of loss/failure is one of the few common threads we have in most of these situations.

---

For more info, see the excellent report by the Secret Service and Dept of Justice at my Columbine Guide (it's the seventh bullet under item #1). It's specific to school shooters, but much of the information--particularly what I described above--applies to most mass shootings.

* I have adopted a policy of not repeating the names of perpetrators of these crimes as they occur, and encourage news organizations to do the same. Infamous killers from the past--including Columbine, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma City, etc.--are already infamous, and it is too late to unname them. But we choose not to name them going forward, and deny them a measure of infamy which they seek.

MadMening myself. And lying about it--updated

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:30:10 GMT

JULY 31, 2009 2:00PM

I MadMened myself:

Hmmmmmmm.

Does that look anything like me? (According to one blogger nice enough to come to one of my booktour events, she was pleased to see that I looked somewhat "wrinklier" than my profile pic. I also smile a lot more. Otherwise, it's a pretty true likeness I guess, on my best day. Or more precisely, the best out of 700 photos taken that day.)

The problem is, MadMen lets you--forces you to--select all the features yourself, down to your nose, mouth and eyebrows. I imagine the more comfortable you feel with your looks, the easier it is to tell the truth.

Damn. I don't think this is a likeness test, it's a self-consciousness test about your appearance.

I failed.

How did you do?

---

I've got to run to lunch with a friend--whose MadMen pic looks remarkably like her, oddly enough; but then she's hot, it was easy.

When I get back, I'm going to do what I was badly tempted to do the first time: select all the choices I want. I guess we'll find out what I really want to look like.

(Although I could just post a pic of Jan Hamm and be done with it, I guess.) Hmmmmm. Or Colin Farrell or the guy from The Mentalist.

I guess we'll see. Soon.

---

OK here's my ideal version:

It didn't look all that different to me, until I did the close-up. (I had to try to recreate the orig and couldn't figure out how to make the hair blue. I also figured out that I could/should add the bags under my eyes.)

"Actual":

Ideal:

Damn. That's pretty different. I'd much rather be this guy. Too bad.

Iphone advice needed: headphones

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:28:52 GMT

JULY 30, 2009 2:42PM

After five months, the Apple headset I got with my iphone wore out. (The cord seems to frazzle on the inside, so only one ear now works.)

I know some of you LOVE giving advice, so have at it.

KEY REQUIREMENTS:
1) I like the earbuds
2) I need the microphone on the cord, so I can use it for phone and ipod (listening to music at the gym, etc.)

Thanks.

And any thoughts on why they wore out so fast would be useful. (I usually shove them into my pocket or my gym bag when I'm on the move.)

True Blood is creeping me out

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:27:19 GMT

JULY 28, 2009 2:24AM

I guess that's the point. But still. I do not like that feeling.

What made me think I could watch a vampire show?

Oh right, the first season. It was amazing. And very modest does of creepiness. (I never got used to Bill biting Soukie, but she seemed safe, and they didn't linger, so I just gutted through it.)

I have never liked vampire stuff. This was different, though. Mostly. And incredibly done. It was hands down, the best show on TV last year, IMO.

This season, it's been interesting, but sluggish. The last few eps got really intense in the closing minutes. This one had me on edge most of the time, in a good way. Then the end, I shuddered from one scene to the next. Not happily.

This isn't a review, just a reaction. Alan Ball is damn good, but I might just be too much of a weenie for this. And I do not like glazed white eyes on people having sex. That really makes me shudder.

I also broke my rule about watching this show within two hours of bedtime. Damn. Now I'm going to have to stay up awhile. I do not want this shit polluting my dreams. And it will.

I don't know what I was thinking. I watched most of it over late lunch, but only had 15 minutes left, and somehow I scammed myself that it would be all right. And the worse it got, the more I told myself there were only five minutes left, and at least I'd get resolution. Right.

(I guess I'll watch the end of Kathy Griffin's "Norma Gay" ep. It's the first good ep on that show in awhile.)

Oh, and I do not like that shaker lady. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to, but I just had to spit the taste of her out of my mouth. (Especially with her luring in Sookie's friend, who is one of my favorites.)

And poor Laffeyette. And damn, Eric, I just started liking him. And trusting him. I do not like where that is headed.

I do like the young hot church lady coming to the good side, maybe, though not the way she ought to. Is it the good side? They got me to side with the vamps the first season, but those are some nasty bastards.

Maybe I should read the books. This lady who wrote them seems quite creative in conjuring up this world. Impressive. But yuck.

I can't stop, now, though. I have to see how this season resolves, and I'll probably be sucked in all the way to the finish. (Can we make her stop writing them?) Maybe the books will be easier. Or worse.

Hmmmmmm.

Free advance copy of Po Bronson's book, "NurtureShock"

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:25:48 GMT

JULY 28, 2009 12:17AM

It's my publisher's Sept book, and they are giving away Advance Review Copies (ARSc) to the public, first come, first served. (Click here.)

I thought some of you might want one.

Po wrote What Should I Do With My Life, which was a #1 bestseller.

This one is co-written by Ashley Merryman.

BTW, I think it's a pretty cool cover. I wonder if the guy who designed mine did it.

I think this is progress

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:24:23 GMT

JULY 18, 2009 1:54PM

I ate a whole big bag of popcorn, with "the yellow stuff" at Harry Potter last night. I came home wanting to puke.

(For a second, I actually considered it. Does just one time make you bullemic? Eh, it had been two hours ago. Too late anyway.)

The movie was scheduled for 9:30, and I'd probably wolfed it all down by 9:40. At 1:40 a.m., I was still lying in bed feeling a football trying to pass through my intestines.

This is with a Lunesta in me, which should knocked me right out. Four hours, and it was still making me sick. I eat a big dinner with a hearty serving of meat 2-3 hours before bed nearly every night. (Please resist the urge to give me advice about that, BTW.)*

It was not the amount of food, it was all those crappy white carbs, and maybe whatever fat is in the mysterious yellow stuff.

I had a similar, but milder experience about a week ago, when I ate a whole bunch of potato chips with dinner. (My biggest weakness, potato chips. God, I love those things.)

JULY 18, 2009 1:54PM

This was not formerly a problem.

I actually take this as a really good sign. I've gotten much better at expunging the nasty white carbs from my diet. I'm down to maybe ten percent body fat, and holding for the past three years or so.

I seem to have finally trained my stomach not to expect that garbage. And it recoils when I slam it down anyway.

I like that. And I wonder if it will stop me the next time. If I can just remember how sick and bloated it will make me feel after, maybe my fist will make fewer trips up to my mouth with the crap.

Harry Potter is special for me because . . .

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:23:44 GMT

JULY 17, 2009 10:18PM

I'm heading out to Harry Potter. He's got a special place in my heart because I figured out Dylan in the middle of a the last Harry film, exactly two years ago. "Figured out" might not be quite right. Or "him"--more like how I was going to convey him.

It just all came together while I was watching--during the scene where they were on the suspension foot bridge and his girlfriend/pal (Hmine?) told him he needed his friends' help.

I pulled out my paper and started scribbling in the dark, continued in the lobby after. (My buddy was nice enough to wait while I spilled it. It doesn't come back if you don't catch it.)

I'm not sure how much of it had to do with Harry. It was a mildly spellbinding film, which got my juices flowing, and I think they were ready to rupture and there they went. It was not Harry-specific, but I maybe just needed something good.

That was also the end of my Dylan-induced depression. I noticed as I wrote that I was not depressed--it had just lifted, completely--but I was so close to the depression it was just fingertips away, close enough to observe it intensely for a little while, before it drifted slowly into the middle distance, where I could only see shapes and outlines. I was so close, yet outside it, which is everything. You can't see anything from the inside. At least I can't.

It occured to me also, that I had isolated myself for four months, and immersed myself in Dylan's world and maybe dragged myself into depression without knowing what I was up to so I could taste a bit of what he felt. I never did that consciously, but the trail looked pretty incriminating from there.

However I'd gotten in there, or why, I was out. It was like I was drowning and someone yanked me out of the water and I was completely dry. (Another metaphor? Hahaha. Sorry. I guess I'm just working them out here. The fog didn't seem quite right, because those don't disappear instantly, do they? This did. I was miserable, miserable, miserable, and then this one thought struck in the theater, my pulse raced, I started scribbling . . . and I never sank back down.

I have not been depressed since. Thank God. I don't like depression. At all.

Sept 7 Update:

Here's what I posted on the film briefly, later:

The movie kind of dragged. Probably the dullest of the lot, though at least there was none of the goofy filler high school dance stuff.

Clinging to the Times' extended list: #28 again

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:22:16 GMT

JULY 10, 2009 5:01PM

About a month back, I fell off the NY Times' bestseller list. It had been an eight-week run, but fom there it looked like a quick, steep drop off their extended list. But I keep managing to hold on.

Next week's list posted today, and for the third or fourth time, I was convinced I'd be off, but Columbine is still hanging in there, again at #28.

(The official list goes to #15, the extended to #35.)

Most books drop like a rock once they start dropping--and I feared at the beginning that mine would drop especially fast if readers thought of it as specifically-related to the tenth anniversary. And It did take quite a plunge at first--something like 13 to 21, when it went from main list to extended, so I thought that would only accelerate.

It seems to have found a little home around #30, though. I'm not sure if it will last, but it's been lasting longer than I'd imagined. It dropped to 31 and then began to hold. It stayed there for two weeks, then moved up to 28 last week and now it's at 28 again in the list posted today. (Which will be in the magazine Sunday after next.)

I thought the first week where it held its ground was due to O Magazine, and would be short-lived. Maybe that's still a factor, but I think it's also just the summer doldrums for books and TV (the reverse for movies--I don't know about music).

I've heard about this for years, but watching the list week to week has been interesting. There was a lot of action in the spring, with lots of new books hitting the list each week, most rising and falling really fast. Now it's mostly the same books. There's only one new book on the main list this week (the top 15), and the extended list (to 35) is pretty steady. Most of the books are hanging out around the same position.... Read More

Hopefully new people keep finding my book, though. (Or getting worn down by friends suggesting it. Hahaha.)

The new Times list (for next week) is here:

You can just subtract 7 from the date to see each previous week. I did the math for the previous week for you.

Sept 7 Update:

COLUMBINE ended up spending eight weeks on the main list, and five on the extended.

Thanks one more time to everyone who supported it.

COLUMBINE just picked for Oprah's Summer Reading List

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:18:46 GMT

JUNE 12, 2009 5:02PM

Oprah has selected COLUMBINE for her "Summer Reading List." It's the cover story of the July O Magazine (hitting newstands soon), and the cover story right now on Oprah.com.

We gave her exclusive rights to an excerpt--the first chapter--now on Oprah.com. Her site also features new Book Club Discussion Questions for COLUMBINE.

They gave it a terrific review. A taste:

. . . Dave Cullen's spectacularly gripping account of the Colorado school shooting that shocked America a decade ago. But Cullen's chilling narrative is too vital to miss, as are his myth-busting revelations.

Thanks, Oprah.

I know people have very mixed opinions on Oprah, but I think she has done tremendous things for books and reading in America.

(And despite an outcome I didn't like, she and her staff were really impressive to work with this spring. That is one classy operation.)

You can discuss any of her 25 books of summer. That is just getting started today, with just a few topics so far. Anyone want to add a topic for COLUMBINE? You have to be a member. (You can join for free.) I'm not sure what the best topic would be.

---

FYI: If you have not heard, the producers informed us they don't ever plan to show the Columbine episode we taped in April. I owe you all a little more on that, and the story of how I got the news, which I'll post soon.

Thanks for all the good wishes on that. I've mostly put it behind me, which is part of why I haven't said much. You can't win 'em all.

Iphone 3GS: I'm glad I didn't wait

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:18:01 GMT

JUNE 10, 2009 2:18AM

I just saw the subject line in my inbox: Introducing the next iPhone.

Dammit! I knew I should have waited.

I thought about it for a few seconds. No I shouldn't. What I should have done is bought the old model even sooner.

I resisted buying the iphone until I think Feb of this year. I'm a writer, money was/is tight, and I didn't think I could afford it. I really wanted one with me for my book tour in April, though. I was afraid a new model was around the corner, but didn't want to wait, so I plunged ahead.

Rarely have I fallen for a new gadget like this. My last tech love affair on this order was my tivo. Amazing device, that. The iphone, too.

Yeah, I wish it would go faster, and I will curse not having the new S version that supposedly goes twice as fast. And I'd like the compass, but and a few other small things, but can do without.

To get those four months with the older iphone, though, totally worth it. Time is my tightest commodity these days, and it has saved me massive amounts of time. It's the first cellphone big enough for me to actually process emails on it, and occasionally check websites I need to. I can finally use both thumbs to type at a half-decent rate. The phone quality is great with the headset and I can make calls hands-free in the car without driving all my friends and colleagues nuts.

And it has provided great joy, too.

Moral for me: When a really great new technology comes out, go ahead and adopt early. Sometimes, it really is worth it.

What I really want:

The killer app I really want is the one that keeps my headset cord untangled.

I am not alone. I go to the gym and a constant stream of people coming out of the locker rooms are untangling their cords before they put the ear buds in to listen to their Ipod.

The inventor of this app/device will be a wealthy woman or man.

Mine usually comes out in a tangled mess, somehow all wrapped inside itself. It tends to be less severe if I take the time to wrap the cord around the iphone before it goes into my pocket, but I'm never going to do that every time, especially since it often doesn't help.

Am I doing something wrong?

Snubbing Queen Liz: You go France!

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:13:51 GMT

Tomorrow marks D Day. That ghastly queen in England will not be at the commemoration.

Way to go France!

(I realize the French may or may not have been intending to snub the British people as well. I don't applaud that aspect. But I'll take small victories over the monarchy where I can get them.) The NY Times says Liz is "fuming." I am delighted.

Her poor little "highness" snubbed? Not nearly enough.

What I don't understand is why people outside that country--or inside--agree to use words like royal or highness without the ironic distance of quotaion marks.

The monarchy is a ridiculous and decrepit institution. There's no place for it at a celebration of one of the great historical triumphs of/for Democracy. (ie, not a triumph of/for a privileged, hereditary ruling class. Ugh. Disgusting.)

If Liz wants to attend as an individual, fine, but if she were invited, the institution comes with her. I am so repulsed by the sight of foreign leaders--particularly ours--bowing and deferring to this symbol of a thousand years of oppression.

Her Majesty. Please. She is not a majesty. She has earned nothing. That family should have been discharged to fend for itself a hundred years ago. Calling her that is a disgrace.

I prefer the sentiment Thomas Jefferson expressed in our Declaration, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . " -- That was a direct rebuttal to the preposterous "Divine Right of Kings" and a direct contradiction of the concept that there exists a Magisterial personage such as The Queen.

Monarchies are relics of the Middle Ages--that wonderful period of human culture--and long before. Their existence in the twenty-first century is ridiculous. They are an abomination.

I understand why our leaders swallow their pride and adhere to the rituals of this Medieval anachronism. You can't make every interaction with the Brits into a fight about basic human equality. (That should be a given, but if the Brits insist in rubbing the world's nose in the idea of basic equality every time their country interacts with the world, you have to pick your battles.)

So you can't snub the institution every time, but I applaud every country and individual when they do stand up for what’s right and snub her. I get a great big smile every time I see another nick chiseled out of her royal armour.

Go French!