The Hot List

My favorite soup-to-nuts blog features killer recipes and great book/movie reviews: Cook, Book, and Look.

If you're going to New Orleans—and you should, as often as possible—this is the place to stay. Two friends of mine, Patrick and Karma Ashton are the warmest hosts you could ever hope to meet and Ashton's Bed and Breakfast is perfectly located in a quiet neighborhood just outside the French Quarter. Tell them Bob Ray sent you and I may get a free cigar from Patrick the next time I visit. Their web site is also a work of art. I wish I could say I designed it.

This is the most creative site I've seen in a long time. Visit Sisbro Studios to see what you can do with MODx, Ajax and a ton of talent.

You have to try this to believe it. Type in the name of one of your favorite authors at Literature Map and see what other authors' names come up. I entered Thomas Pynchon and got a list of about 30 authors that all belong on my favorites list.

Over the years, Paul Brians has compiled this invaluable list of Common Errors in English.

Here's the world's best list of Weird Words.

If you enjoy thinking about language, you'll love Judi Wolinsky's Word Play site.

Read James Donaldson Collins' essays on life and other matters at his Scottish Essays Site.

Kill some time with Surrealist Games and other diversions. Try the computerized automatic writing. [Site may be down for surreal reasons.]

Read New Zealand Writer Simon Travaglia's priceless fiction about your worst computer support nightmares: Bastard Operator From Hell.

Can a Twinkie pass the Turing test?

Here are some other assessments performed by the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project.

Feel like puking? Check out poohfriends.com.

Recover from the Pooh page with tasteless and offensive humor at The Onion. (Also syndicated on the Hot Feeds page.)

Is it 1984 yet? Banned Books On-Line.

Check out Phractured Phoreign Phrases (e.g. L'etat c'est Moe: All the world's a stooge.)

What can you do just by modifying a site's .css file? Check out css Zen Garden.