Literary news

There is the oddest firestorm blowing up around sites I read over the Obama gossip book by the Times's Jodi Kantor, and the generous excerpts in today's Times dishing out a tale of conflict between Rahm Emanuel and Michelle Obama--between Firebaggers howling over its revelation of Barack's weak moral character (as if a book of this sort could "reveal" much of anything beyond a general pattern of reported movements from room to room, and quotes from those low enough in the hierarchy to be able to speak freely), and Obots screeching over it as part of a whole election-year conspiracy to make Michelle look "unlikeable"--so that the two sides never quite make contact, like King Pellinore and Sir Grummore in their duel in The Sword in the Stone, thwacking away at each other without effect until they both crash into trees and knock themselves out.

I couldn't find a visual of T.H. White's elderly knights, but here is a nice Questing Beast by Arthur Rackham, for someone else's retelling

I don't know if these people are just unfamiliar with gossip, [jump]