So if you haven’t heard, Starbucks is coming out with a new audio history book. Instead of using real, paper books, they’re offering condensed history lessons compiled in an “oral history project”. While it may be a decent idea, and the finished product may be interesting, there’s just something very dirty about Starbucks profiting on the genuine, heartfelt stories of people who lived to have stories to tell.

Not that it would be any less dirty with a different huge publisher. But I’m not sure I’d want to listen to it.

In case anyone cared about what ever happened to Ms. Leroy, the verdict is in. She will be required to pay almost $350,000 to the production company she supposedly duped - roughly triple what a jury had decided she should pay. I’m not sure what to think about that. On one hand, I’d love to see authors free to act like the crazy freaks that they often are. If that means constructing elaborate alter egos, so be it. On the other hand, this lady went to extreme lengths to keep up the charade, even enlisting friends to pose as the male author.

What do you think? Crazy and guilty, or just plain crazy?

I can only imagine the waitlist for this class (below). When I went to college in Chicago, there were waitlists for anything with a professor who was remotely famous in academic circles. I would almost be inclined to pay full private tuition to audit that one - and I’m still paying off my first degree. I like the part where he says that he donated his archives to Emory because no one else had ever asked.