Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* To my shame, I just now came across the web-mag of the American Institute of Graphic Artists. Edited by the great Steven Heller, AIGA Voice is an impressive and inviting publication, full of all kinds of goodies for those fascinated by visuals. I'm looking forward to doing a lot of catching-up.

* Vesna Vulovic, a Serbian airline stewardess, was working in a jetliner at 33,000 feet when a terrorist bomb went off. She survived the explosion -- and she survived the fall. Here's an interview with her.

* What do we make of this resourceful playwright's sexual habits?

* This audio clip of Orson Welles taping an radio commercial for peas (and not taking direction well, to say the least) was an underground legend for years. Now it can be listened to online. "The right reading for this is the one I'm delivering," he states, orotundly. As a good arts person, I should have listened to this recording feeling heartbroken by the sad spectacle of a great genius reduced to squabbling over a radio spot. Instead, my heart went out to the guys in the control booth. Imagine having to spend your working hours wrangling Orson Welles' ego.

* Thanks to Pondblog for pointing out this Swiss report about a new kind of solar-power generator that's not only flexible but highly efficient.

* Teenaged boys don't deserve to live.

* Thanks to George Hunka for pointing out the blog of the interesting theater journalist Steve Oxman.

* I say, Give the kid a hundred million dollar contract now.

* Some of the Cajun jokes -- Cajun jokes? Who knew? -- at this blog made me laugh.

* Who's "white" and who's not? Razib introduces a lot of useful complexity into the question.

* OGIC has the goods on some literary books about poker.

Best,

Michael