March 2007 Bibliographies

“Abalone Vice”
Chad Hershler
pp. 16-20

Before we talk about molluscs, can we take a moment to talk about a fantastic board game called Abalone? Designed in the mid-1980s by two Frenchmen, it has sold over four million copies worldwide. It’s quick to learn, simple to play, and surprisingly subtle—think sumo wrestling with marbles. Visit the official site to learn more or play for free online.

To find out more about the animal, visit the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website, which features some fascinating video clips, along with particulars of abalone biology.

While the literary community continues to wait anxiously for somebody to write The Great Poaching Novel, the waters are plentiful in the non-fiction section. Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish (Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006) is G. Bruce Knecht’s account of pursuing poachers who target the Patagonian toothfish, better-known to North American seafood consumers as the Chilean sea bass. While Knecht’s message is about conservation, he never preaches. This is a page-turner, interweaving the history of the fish with a study of the lawless world of commercial fishing.


“Hail to the Hammer”
Amy Reiswig
pp. 20-21

For a taste of Tyr’s own special blend of Norse mythology and killer guitar riffs, visit the band’s myspace page or their official website. The latter features a video for their hit “Regin Smiour,” in which shots of the band performing are intercut with re-enactments of Viking battles. If you like your metal darker (i.e., fewer broadswords and more church-burning and impaled pig heads), read this 2005 Observer profile on the band Mayhem, which explores the fascinating and somewhat disturbing world of Norwegian Black Metal.


“Selling on the Sly”
Matt Mossman
pp. 21-22

British journalist Tim Phillips explores the dark side of the fake goods market in Knockoff: The Deadly Trade in Counterfeit Goods (Sterling, VA: Kogan Page, 2005). Phillips investigates how the black market is undermining the legal economy in a number of developing countries.

Erdal, the principal character in Matt Mossman’s story, sells fake jeans in Eminonu Square; make sure you don’t get caught buying fakes on eBay by accident with these tips on how to spot counterfeits from UK jean-fetishist site Denimology.


“Organic Goes Boom”
Pamela Cuthbert
pp. 26-27

Books addressing organic food and ethical eating have also hit the big time. One of the biggest is Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), an eloquently written and well-researched investigation of the political, economic, psychological, and ethical issues involved in the seemingly simple task of deciding what to eat for dinner. His chapter “Big Organic” is of particular relevance, but with chapters such as “Gathering: The Fungi,” “The Market: ‘Greetings from the Non-Barcode People,’” and “The Plant: Corn’s Conquest,” it offers an engaging look at the origins of North America’s major sources of sustenance.

If you’re not already confused enough about where your food is coming from, check out “Who Owns What in the Organic Food Industry,” a chart created by Michigan State University’s Phil Howard, illustrating the connections between North America’s big food corporations and their organic offspring.

“Organic Goes Mainstream,” a three–part series that aired on CBC radio’s Ideas in June 2006, looks at the evolution (or perhaps devolution) of the organic industry, from the family-oriented farm co-ops of the 60s, through the birth of Earthbound Organics (purportedly the world’s largest organic produce company) in the 80s, to the American standardization of organics in 2002. Links to the series can be accessed through the Cyber-Help for Organic Farmer’s website.

The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada’s website offers detailed information about organic farming in Canada (including virtual farm tours) and provides links to educational resources such as courses on organic agriculture. Likewise, the Canadian Organic Grower’s website is an excellent resource for current news and statistics on organics in Canada.


“Blood Simple”
Ann Silversides
pp. 28-30

There’s plenty of information about cord-blood banking available online, most of it advertorial content targeted at young mothers. Dr. Barbara E. Cruickshank appears to be offering the straight goods in her overview of the subject, posted on the Parents Canada site. American Baby magazine features advice from Karin A. Bilich on what parents should ask before deciding on a cord-blood banking facility.

As Ann Silversides suggested, the pressure for parents to invest in cord-blood banking can sometimes be overwhelming. Alix Christie wrote about her experience with the private banks for Salon.com in 2000. “The Cord Blood Controversy” stirred up its own controversy, when cord-blood banking supporters inundated the journal with correctives.

Dr. Leroy C. Edozien weighs in on the cord-blood controversy in an article published in the October 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal. He acknowledges that cord-blood banking may seem appealing to young parents, but argues that it should not be promoted on British maternity units.

A valuable source of information on this increasingly contentious issue is the Stem Cell Research Blog. (The site includes material on how this issue has developed within India.) This isn’t a professional medical site, but the administrator keeps a close eye on recent developments in the cord-blood banking world and posts regularly.


“Here Comes the Heat”
Alanna Mitchell
pp. 33-41

For one of the best Internet resources on abrupt climate change, check out the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s website, which includes articles on many different aspects of the issue and a useful Q&A on the film The Day After Tomorrow. (Q: In the movie, a giant hurricane descends from the Arctic, freezing people with -150° F wind. Is this possible? A: No.)

Think you’re ready to delve deeper into the science of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum? You can read Appy Sluijis’ doctoral thesis on the subject at the University of Utrecht’s online Universiteitsbibliotheek. A warning, however: much of Appy’s work addresses the effect of “meridional temperature gradients” on “dinoflagellate Apectodinium.”

There are ten things you can do to limit your contribution to global warming, according to the Sierra Club. Though many items on the list involve newer technologies (like energy-efficient refrigerators and compact fluorescent light bulbs), old standards like planting a tree and following the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) are as important as they ever were.


“A House Divided”
Jonathan Garfinkel
pp. 49-56

There are as many books chronicling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as there are opinions about how to end it. Mark Tessler’s A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994) and James L. Gelvin’s The Israel-Palestine Conflict: 100 Years of War (Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005) are two excellent places to start. In the graphic novel, Palestine (Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2001), cartoonist Joe Sacco reports from the Occupied Territories during the first intifada, telling the stories of the Palestinian families he meets there.


“Snail Males”
Ken Coates and Clive Keen
pp. 58-63

The Boys Project, Judith Kleinfeld’s initiative to “help young males develop their capabilities and reach the potential that their families and teachers know they have,” provides an extensive list of resources on its website, including links to articles on neuroscience and the psychological life of boys. Visitors can also learn about individuals and institutions working to close the “achievement gap.”

The Australians seem to be working the hardest to combat male underachievement. Tasmania-based psychologist Steve Biddulph’s book, Raising Boys: Why Boys are Different and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed, 1998), has done much to raise public awareness of the issue. The government of Australia has tackled the issue of male underachievement head-on, allocating around $27 million over 2003-2008 to improving boys’ educational and social outcomes. The Department of Education, Science and Training has compiled links to a variety of research reports and conference papers and provides a link to the website for Australia’s Success for Boys Initiative.

While Canada lags behind Australia in the recognition of this issue, there has been some media coverage here, including the CBC’s InDepth piece on the literacy challenges young boys face in elementary school, titled “Gender Gap.”

Not everyone agrees that there is a crisis in boys’ education. Feminists, in particular, have suggested that this rhetoric reflects men’s fear that women are catching up after years of discrimination. In a blog post on USA Today’s Opinion page, Kim Gandy, president of the US National Organization for Women, argues the point, claiming that “part of the boy-crisis alarm is about competition…Too many men have a problem seeing women as equals, and would just as soon not have to compete.”


“We Want a Black Poem”
Austin Clarke
pp. 64-68

Both brothermalcolm.net and Columbia University’s The Malcolm X Project are fine web resources for information on Malcolm X. They include scholarly articles, audio files of oral histories and X’s speeches, access to FBI files, and detailed chronologies of his life.

In the two essays in The Fire Next Time (New York: Library of America, 1998), James Baldwin writes about X’s childhood in Harlem and discusses race in America.


“Schoolboy Chic”
Tim McKeough
pp. 71-73

Even a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy has to put on the ritz once in a while, and when he does, he needn’t find himself at a loss for advice on what to wear.

The pseudonym “Nicholas Antongiavanni” belongs to a former speechwriter for George W, Condi Rice, and Rudy Giuliani, who has just published a fashion guide for the ambitious man. In The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style (New York: Collins, 2006), the author proposes that men should be equipped with lessons from The Prince as well as the name of a good tailor as they haul themselves up in the world. The book includes requisite bitchy takedowns of male celeb fashion faux pas.

A more general approach to menswear can be found in designer Alan Flusser’s Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion (New York: HarperCollins, 2002). Flusser recommends clothes that bespeak a timeless style, making accommodations for the individual’s unique physique and complexion.

Flusser, however, is no fan of Thom Browne’s work. His critique of Brown’s aesthetic can be found at The Sartorialist, a popular New York blog about fashion. If you’re willing to risk Flusser’s disapproval, maybe it’s time to start imagining yourself in one of the many designs promoted on Thom Browne’s official website.


“An American Type of Sadness”
Charles Foran
pp. 75-79

Many critics and authors have attacked American writers for filling their novels with information at the expense of character and feeling, but none more devastatingly than critic James Wood, who has labelled this kind of writing “hysterical realism.” In a 2001 piece for the Guardian, Wood discusses how the events of September 11 might change contemporary American novels, which he sees as full of “immense self-consciousness with no selves in them at all, curiously arrested and very ‘brilliant’ books that know a thousand things but do not know a single human being.”

In Jonathan Franzen’s paean to Canada’s Alice Munro in the New York Times, he suggests that Munro’s refusal to pack in the info is what makes her so good and may also be one of the reasons she is underappreciated: “As long as you’re reading Munro, you’re failing to multitask by absorbing civics lessons or historical data. Her subject is people. People people people.”

David Foster Wallace’s interview with Salon offers insight into his writing process and motivations, while Stim.com has audio of him reading from Infinite Jest. Robert Birnbaum of online magazine the Morning News (tag line: Black and White and Read All Over) has put both Rick Moody and Jonathan Lethem through their paces.