Black Lamb

January 2010 in Black Lamb

Volume 8, Number 1 — January 2010

January 1st, 2010

In our cover article for this Seventh Anniversary Issue, Terry Ross offers “suggestions for making the next few decades better than the last. In Got a light? Elizabeth Fournier tries hard to bond with her blind date over their common love for old matchbooks. Leslie Russell celebrates beekeeping in Light for the larder.

Greg Roberts introduces us to the bums who collect empties in Unhand that bottle! In the wilds of Wyoming, Toby Tompkins describes a colorful bullshitter in St. Theckla of the wilderness. In Can you hear me now? Ed Goldberg confesses that he has finally broken down and purchased a mobile phone. In Are we there yet? Elizabeth Hart describes a road trip during which everyone in the car except her was constantly jabbering on their cellphones. Over in Italy, Dan Peterson extols the metric system in The measure of man. In Only connect Rod Ferrandino goes googling and finds that everyone’s inside everyone’s else’s head. In three articles from the Black Lamb archives, called The Best of Black Lamb, Michele Gendelman describes a facial peel in Rage before beauty; Gene Ryder reflects on his mother in The last dance; and Grant Menzies remembers how the Pathétique Symphony made him realize he was gay in Tchaikovsky’s eyes.

Our Honorary Black Lambs column honors four new inductees: novelist and non-fiction writer Nicholson Baker, Victorian mystery novelist Wilkie Collins, hippy icon Richard Brautigan, and novelist and short story writer John O’Hara. Our Literary Sampler offers five selections by writers mentioned in this month’s issue. In Scissors redux, bridge columnist Trixie Barkis takes another look at the famous Scissors Coup. Our Black Lamb Recipe is for a Turkish lamb pilaf. In Wretched Excess, we showcase an utterly tasteless crystal pendant featuring Tweety Bird. Advice columnist Millicent Marshall tells us what to do about singing in public. And Professor Avram Khan gives us another challenging Black Lamb Word Puzzle.

Posted by: The Editors
Category: Month summaries | Link to this Entry