Things Noted Here & There

I will link to the first of Geoff Dyer's columns for the book section of the New York Times, "An Academic Author's Unintentional Masterpiece," NYT, 22 July.

Matthias Schulz, "Experts Baffled by Mysterious Underground Chambers," Der Spiegel, 22 July, explores the reasons for medieval subterranean tunnels in Bavaria.

David Mikics, "Seduction Unending," The Book, 25 July, reviews Andrei Codrescu's Whatever Gets You Through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments.

David Hackett Fischer, "Gordon S. Wood, Historian of the American Revolution," NYT, 22 July, reviews Wood's The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States.

Mark Liberman, "Peeve of the week: 20% correct," Language Log, 16 July, launches a long discussion of Americanisms that Brits often find irritating.

Garry Wills, "Scientologists, Catholics and More Money Than God," NYT, 21 July, reviews Jason Berry's Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church and Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion.

Sherwin Nuland, "Sigmund Freud's Cocaine Years," NYT, 21 July, reviews Howard Markel's An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine.

Finally, John Summers and George Scialabba, "Statement in Support of Aaron Swartz," Guernica, 23 July, makes the case against his prosecution. You can join Scott McLemee, Rick Perlstein, John Summers, George Scialabba, me and over 45,000 others by signing this petition in opposition to prosecuting Swartz.