Harold and Kumar go to....

Wanna spread happiness around? Unwittingly, I spread around loads of it after mentioning the impending release of Harold and Kumar go to.... in 2007. Folks were so thrilled they started dancing around. Where do the White Castle freaks go? It's a no-brainer. The dope capital in Europe. Go ahead and Google for more info.

Also, as I walked to Market St. with a fellow journalist yesterday after work, a flowing conversation led to the kid's book "Charlotte's Web," where a little piggy enlists the help of a spider from becoming pork. As a kid, I never read it, I was just so obsessed with Dr. Seuss titles like "Go Dog Go" that I missed a whole generation of kiddie fiction.

Coincidentally, there's a film version of Charlotte's Web coming out too, in late 2006, I just saw the trailer a few days ago. Told her that, and so thrilled she was, she jumped on the streets.

Thinking about the fiction I've read for a while, it's been mixed. I started with Dr. Seuss, then moved to Enid Blyton-Roald Dahl type stuff, (forget the middle), then got to Hardy Boys (ok, I'm NOT embarassed!). A few uninspiring mysteries later I took on non-fiction, perhaps at 17 or 18. I'm still stuck on that end, like war stories and lives of real people. Occassionally, I read fiction, Don DeLillo's my favorite author.

Right now, I'm back to the basics -- Harry Potter VI. It's frustrating at times to see the verbosity -- I'm a pro editor -- but keep in mind, the book is written for kids who need more words to understand the sentence. It takes real talent to write such easy-to-read books, hats off to JK Rowling.

The misguided, rock music-obsessed Chick Pea is a person who writes like that in the blog universe. Simple language, an easy-to-read format and great structure make her blog super fun to read. Dr. Seuss' absolute, puristic influence. Her prescriptions will be terrible to read though.