PANKcast!

1. Norma Fox Mazer, an older person who actually understood the ups and down of young adults, passed away. Damn.

2. Plotless, yet laced with something very tasty.

3. Her husband fell in love with a gay man, and she got into a car accident right after he left.   The Detroit Free Press has a lovely article on Rhoda Janzen, a Michigan Mennonite.

4. Lots of sex back then, and the baby boom was just ending.

5. Boston Book Festival celebrates the decline of book sales and readership! Hooray?

6. I like reading. Out loud.

7. Beer helps you plan better!

8. Get this for your kids this Christmas: a Ray Nagin coloring book!

9. Ah, nothing like a wonderful poem by Nina Zivancevic at the end of a crappy autumn day.

10. Roar!

11. Tweedledee, tweedledum.

12. And with the upcoming holiday, Stephen Asma claims that monsters are a product of society, not a biological or genetic characteristic. Phew!