One study found that the inside of our mouths most closely resemble the scum growing on the bottom of ponds. And that's just the start of the alimentary canal.

opps wrong again! Mussolini was part of Burson's original Gang of Five, so the resulting Mobyfied Big Brother would be no balder, just a little weaselier looking.

Back in the early '80s Nancy Burson did the first computer "image" of Big Brother by combining Mao, Hitler, Stalin, and Khomeni: http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/big-brother/ So if we substitute Moby for Khomeni, we should arrive at a much more accurate (and considerably balder) Big Brother.

Having written two reasonably successful books, I would be delighted if pirated copies are delivered for free, because both were written under a ball-squeezer Work For Hire contract presented to me as "take it or leave it." What is disheartening is the biggest "cultural" players are doing this as S.O.P. (that means YOU Smithsonian Institution and Museum of Modern Art) and an author with the facts but little "following" is truly faced with 1. publish and get paid $.50/word with no future benefits EVER or 2. don't publish at all. I know a few people who successfully write non-fiction for a living and they must alternate between projects for money (e.g. corporate histories) and projects of love (e.g. histories of cemetaries). I think the majority of the public think that authors collect "royalties" as a matter of course. Not today they don't!

Now THAT has got to be the first reference on /. to the author of "Of Humane Bondage." What's next, quotations from Elliot's "The Waste Land"? [Personally I prefer Ogden Nash]

I believe the classic London cabbie's formulation is "first you gets your knowledge, then you gets your money, then you gets your women." The "knowledge" of course being their incredibly-detailed recall of the streets and thoroughfares of London--they set a fine example for NYC!

and potential static cling during drying cycles.