Disappearing-ink cover

McSweeney's #35 features a disappearing-ink cover by Jordan Crane. It's $13 at Amazon.

Here's Jordan's cover for Uptight #3:



You can read some of the interior pages here.

Jake Gittes Lego CubeDude (link roundup)

Jake Gittes (Chinatown) and Ghostbusters Lego CubeDudes by Angus MacLane.

And a few more links:

1. San Francisco: The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S. Via.

2. Sample question to see if law school is right for you.

3. Crunching the numbers to determine if McSweeney's San Francisco Panorama experiment indicates a way to make profitable newspapers (Nope, not remotely). Via.

*Previously: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril.

*Buy the Panorama at Amazon.

Poketo x 826LA Wallet by Tim Biskup and Miro

I was lucky enough to win a Poketo x 826LA Wallet last week and was pleasantly surprised by how charming it is. One side features a short story by an eight-year old named Miro about a man who had breath so bad that he moved the Earth into the path of a meteor, causing the death of the dinosaurs. (The circular illustration is actually a removable button.)



The other side features Tim Biskup's illustration of the story:



There are several more wallets in the series, which can be bought from Poketo or 826LA. Oh, and I won the wallet at the illustration blog called Little Chimp Society.

*Previously: Time Travel Posters at 826LA.

*"McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories" is available for less than a $1 used at Amazon.

Time Travel Posters by Amy Martin at 826LA

Intriguing invitation I just received from 826LA. Couldn't find any more information about Amy Martin or the show.

Disney's new "Extreme Vacations"

Vince Licata for McSweeney's:

African Safari

Hang upside down from a juniper tree while coated in chicken blood as part of "Lion Encounters." Sober, clean-shaven sharpshooters have got you covered, just in case Simba gets too playful. Spend your evenings in a malarial haze dining with aplomb on various tubers and roots. Throw back a few dozen East African millet beers, dance a traditional Masai war dance until you can no longer feel the pain in your badly infected feet, then slip into the fuzzy comfort of your complimentary Lion King slippers. $2,200 per person.

Many more extreme vacations described here.

*Previously: Plush Jack Sparrow.

Best haiku ever

I received an email advertising 826LA's summer writing courses for kids. It includes this haiku by Anthony Vasquez, age 6:

Wolf

Wolves like to AH-OOOOOH
They like to eat people and
Play guitar softly

The summer courses sound great. For example:

Write Your Own Detective Series

Students ages 8 to 11 will collectively create one adventurous main character and then write their own detective mystery stories for the series. At the end of 4 weeks, we'll have a detective series filled with all those important mystery elements: clues, plot twists, and more! If you've got a closetful of red herrings to share, please, do tell and sign up to help.

Excerpts From Sex And The City And The Crystal Skull

Jill Morris for McSweeney's:

Page 20

INT. FIFTH AVENUE PENTHOUSE

(BIG is making CARRIE dinner.)

BIG: Welcome to our new home, baby.

CARRIE: It's beautiful. But I think I'm going to keep my old apartment.

BIG: What do you mean, baby?

CARRIE: I mean ... I would have no legal rights if anything happened. We haven't even found the crystal skull, yet.

BIG: (Laughs.) Is that what you want, baby? To find the crystal skull, baby?

CARRIE: Are you asking me to find the crystal skull with you?

BIG: Sure, baby. I mean, if that will make you happy, baby. I only want to be with you, baby. I just want it to be us, baby. The skull doesn't matter to me, baby.

(CARRIE smiles, looks down.)

BIG: Baby, let's find the skull together.

(BIG and CARRIE kiss. Two CGI doves land on the terrace and wink.)

Read the whole thing.

Michael Chabon's full script for Spider-Man 2

You can download a pdf of the whole thing here. McSweeney's posted it to promote Chabon's new book Maps and Legends.