In this case, "Not Buying It" describes both the title of the book, and the action I intend to take with regard to Judith Levine's book about supposedly going shopping-free for twelve months. For those who enjoy reading deservedly scathing reviews, Cheryl Miller does a good job.

Update: Greg Newburn performs ju-jitsu in a new blog about the benefits of shopping.

Here's a photoessay of its main cathedral.

Equal time for creationists.

Iain Banks' next book delayed by Civilization.

From a law review article I recently wrote:

In the 1993 Seinfeld episode “The Non-Fat Yogurt,” Kramer invests in a store that sells a popular, tasty frozen yogurt that is advertised as non-fat.17 Seinfeld and Elaine become suspicious when they gain weight.18 When they eventually test the yogurt, it turns out to contain fat, and humorous complications ensue.19

17. Seinfeld: The Non-Fat Yogurt (NBC television broadcast, Nov. 4, 1993).
18. Id.
19. Id.

The editors made me add footnotes 18 and 19. "I have to footnote 'Humorous complications ensue'?"

Lat has a well-written review on Blachman's book that comes to conclusions similar to mine. I do think he's being generous in comparing the lead character to classic performances like Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold or Michael Douglas's Gordon Gekko, though; the Anonymous Lawyer isn't even Tom Aldredge's Herb Myerson, much less David Paymer's Marty Rossen. And this sentence made me wince on behalf of my much funnier brother: "A television pilot is in the works."

1. Sequence: Tony Kornheiser debuts on Monday Night Football, gets mixed reviews, including a pan from his own newspaper. As I predicted, TK throws a fit, as he tends to do when the WaPo criticizes him, creating a newsstory of its own (also NYT). Gene Weingarten satirizes this; lots of idiots don't get the joke. The irony is that Kornheiser's reaction was relatively muted compared to incidents in the last few years where he had critical reporters fired.

2. Weingarten also gets the story about jdate-r Darren, who turns out to be even more of a jerk than the Costanza-like scenario much blogged about.

3. Netflix warehouses.

4. I'm more environmental than Al Gore.

5. This page about Thai food in Chicago makes me hungry.