When something becomes too difficult or a burden, just ban it! That appears to be the philosophy that the city of Birmingham in the UK used when the city council decided to ban the apostrophe from all city signs:

The council said the move had been taken for the purposes of consistency and to avoid costs and confusion over whether place names should ever take an apostrophe.

As absurd as this story is, there is more:

However the decision was described as "absolute defeatism" by John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society.

"This is setting a terrible example," Mr Richards said. "It seems retrograde, dumbing down really. All over Birmingham, and in other cities, teachers are trying to teach children correct grammar and punctuation. Now children will go around Birmingham and see utter chaos."

Continue Reading

Now that President Obama is in office, maybe we’ll see the government finally take steps to promote, cultivate and nurture the arts (including literature) in the U.S., at least according to this article from the New York Times. The article notes that the various arts groups and non-profits contribute an estimated $167 billion to the economy each year – so even during this economic crisis, the arts remain important.

Even more exciting, however, is what President Obama campaigned to do for the arts once in office:

Continue Reading

I know this is non-literary related, but I can’t help mentioning this very historic day. Our 44th President, Barack Obama was sworn in today at high noon in Washington D.C..

President Obama has a lot of challenges ahead of him as the U.S. finds itself involved in 2 wars, a huge economic crisis and we are hugely unpopular overseas due to devastating choices the previous president has made regarding foreign policy.

As an interesting side note, President Obama is left-handed. After doing some intense research, I discovered that former President Clinton was also a lefty. Other left-handed presidents include George Bush (# 41), James Garfield, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford (source).

In a blow to the online retailing community, a judge in New York struck down two lawsuits by Amazon and Overstock, giving a new state tax code, which would require online retailers (such as Amazon) to collect taxes from their customers, the green light:

Things are not looking good for Amazon and other online retailers who have been avoiding collecting sales taxes from customers, and for customers who have avoided paying them. A fairly new New York state tax law—dubbed the "Amazon Tax"—has been given the green light as a judge dismissed two lawsuits alleging that the law is unconstitutional. The judge said the law isn’t unfairly targeted at certain retailers, and that online retailers who make a decent chunk of money off of New York residents should help shoulder the burden of tax collection.

Continue Reading

Now that the holidays are over and we are a few days into the new year, it’s time to sit down and get to work! For me, that means laying out a few goals for this blog for 2009. I decided to share them with you so that you will know what to expect from Brad’s Reader this year, and also to keep me more accountable for working hard to follow through with these goals.

Here are my goals for Brad’s Reader in no particular order:

1. Major blog overhaul. This includes a re-design of the blog and also a possible switch to a new platform, one that’s more flexible.

Continue Reading

I just want to wish everyone out there on the inter-tubes a Happy New Year! I hope 2009 brings you all joy and success! And I feel honored that you are reading my first blog post of 2009.

My hopes for the New Year are high and I’ve set some pretty lofty goals for myself (I don’t call them resolutions, I call them goals – but that’s another post for another day). I definitely want to write more and improve my writing. I’d also like to increase the number of freelance projects I take on.

What are your goals for 2009? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a safe and happy New Year!

I really debated hard about whether or not I should post about any issue relating to the arrest and indictment of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, as this is not a political blog (there’s tons of those out there for your daily fix of politics).

But his alleged effort to fire the editorial board at the Chicago Tribune is deeply disturbing and is a matter of free speech, which I discuss here frequently. According to this article from the Chicago Tribune website, Gov. Blagojevich wanted the Tribune’s editorial board removed:

A criminal complaint filed in federal court outlines wiretapped conversations between Blagojevich and his chief of staff—who also was arrested Tuesday—in which the governor said he wanted the Tribune to fire its editorial board, which has called for the Illinois House to explore impeaching the governor. In one wiretapped comment in the complaint, Blagojevich is quoted as saying the Tribune’s owner should be told to "fire those [expletive]."

Ouch! And what would the governor do if the editorial board wasn’t fired? He was allegedly going to make it difficult for the Tribune, which is suffering from some serious financial problems, to receive help from the Illinois Finance Authority with regards to selling Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs.

Continue Reading

One of the great parts about blogging is getting feedback from readers in the form of comments. Unfortunately, sometimes comments are left on posts that were written a while ago, so they often go unnoticed (except by me). Thus I have decided to, every once in a while, to showcase posts that have been commented on recently. Please, join the conversation and don’t be shy!

Continue Reading

I’m sure all struggling writers out there, who work day after day on their craft in hopes of getting that first book published, are mad about this story (or they will be, after reading about it here). Sarah Palin, the former VP candidate on the Republican ticket (remember, the one who couldn’t string a coherent sentence together during those "grueling" interviews she gave) is being courted by publishers and agents for a book deal that will be worth lots of money!

I picked up this story off the wire (ie. Google Alerts), and it says:

Publishers maintain that a book by Palin on her election memoirs will reach to a vast audience who are fascinated by her journey from the moose-hunting wastes of the Alaskan tundra to a historic battle for the White House.

The story continues, saying that Palin would likely receive a multi-million dollar advance for a book about her election run experience (a high estimate is around $7 million).

Continue Reading

For those of you worried that this blog is turning into a political one, fear not, this will probably be my last politics-related post for a while – at least until inauguration day on January 20, 2009.

I just wanted to take a few moments to write about how the election of Barack Obama will change things in this country, and probably around the world. I’m not talking about race or any of his policy positions (although those are all important as well), instead, I’m talking about the internet.

President-Elect Obama will be the first US President to have harnessed the power of the internet, in a big way, to win an election. He had millions of supporters across the country helping his campaign, including donating small sums of money, that had a large impact. This is unheard of in presidential politics.

Continue Reading