In 2011, Locke designed a special set of light, measured shelves that would fit perfectly into a common style of payphone booth in New York City. He assembles and paints the shelves at home, then waits for a quiet time to slip into a booth and conver it into a tiny library, filling the new space with books himself. He has completed four as of the writing of this post.

While the installations are eventually mysteriously dismantled and disappeared, the project has attracted its fair share of attention and admirers. Aside from the New York Times article, Locke has also been approached by citizens and companies and publishers wanting to be involved and to donate books to bolster the continuation of the installations.

An interesting aspect of the work is the encroaching obsolescence of the payphone. Who uses payphones anymore? But believe it or not, they are still a real source of city revenue:

Perhaps more important to the city, pay phones brought in $18 million in revenue in the last fiscal year. Of that, only about $1 million came from callers’ quarters; the rest came from advertisements displayed on the side of the phones’ cabinets. Since the agency would be loath to give up that money, it is considering the suggestions that it turn phone booths into touch-screen neighborhood maps; convert them into charging stations for mobile devices or electric cars; or use them as dispensers for hand sanitizer.

Learn more at John Locke’s web site.

Two vaguely literary items of note regarding the gorgeous golden god that is Ryan Gosling:

1) The web site “Feminist Ryan Gosling” now has an accompanying book, titled, appropriately, Feminist Ryan Gosling. Safer to take in the bathtub than a laptop, and is mostly new material. Its author, Danielle Henderson, is interviewed here about the new book. If you’re unfamiliar with the format of the internet sensation, it’s pretty cute – it involves photoshopping pictures of Ryan Gosling alongside inspirational feminist quotes.

2) And second, let’s talk about Fifty Shades of Grey some more. Have you heard of 50 Shades of Grey? Well – are you sitting down? Sit down. Good then. – it is still rumor and a big game of telephone right now, but the latest buzz is that the movie version will cast Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey. Even though some of us might have a hard time with 50 Shades in terms of literature, or even as a realistic or acceptable depiction of the BDSM community, if you’re in it just for the junk-food-fun of it, it’s hard to not be excited at the idea of Ryan Gosling playing Christian Grey. Love it or loathe it, the book has received unprecedented outpourings of attention, and is controversial both in terms of its quality and its content, and it’s been pretty fun watching this whole thing unfold.

Let’s see if it gets past the rumor stages and comes to fruition.

And now, I must set about finding some rare, antiquarian pieces of literature to showcase, as this may be the most lowbrow blog post I’ve ever written. Internet memes and mommy porn….oh dear.

You can see all the coordinated beach-to-book-to-bikini goodness here.

XML programmer Tim Bray is submitting a Ray Bradbury-themed proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force (the governing body of new internet stuff) to create a new Hypertext Transfer Protocol status code. I’m sure you’ve all stumbled across a Code 404 (many of which are creative and funny) when you’ve clicked a link with an error in it, and gone nowhere. Code 404 = web server was unable to find what you are looking for. Not Found.

The new code, which would be displayed to a user who tries to access a web site to which is blocked for legal reasons would be Code 451 in Bray’s Internet-Draft, which sets out in exact specifications and requirements just what he hopes to see.

451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons

Bradbury, whose most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 centered largely on themes of heavy censorship in a dystopian future, died on June 5th, and the internet community is rallying around this idea of the new code as a way to honor and remember him and his contribution to writing.

In an interview with The Guardian, Bray talked about his feelings behind the idea:

“We can never do away entirely with legal restrictions on freedom of speech. On the other hand, I feel that when such restrictions are imposed, they should be done so transparently; for example, most civilised people find Britain’s system of superinjunctions loathsome and terrifying,” Bray told the Guardian. “While we may agree on the existence of certain restrictions, we should be nervous whenever we do it; thus the reference to the dystopian vision of Fahrenheit 451 may be helpful. Also, since the internet exists in several of the many futures imagined by Bradbury, it would be nice for a tip of the hat in his direction from the net, in the year of his death.”

Would Ray Bradbury have loved this? I hope so. The author was rather famously not a fan of the internet, voicing opinions ranging from disinterested to hostile. But even if he saw our present as dystopian in its electronic immersion, I hope the nod to him and his writing and ideas, and the irony, would make him smile.

It sounds like fiction, but is in fact the story of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and her wooing by and marriage to fellow poet Robert Browning. She was six years his elder, and in chronically failing health, and found it difficult to accept that Browning’s affections for her ran as deep as they claimed. He first wrote to her in 1845 to express admiration for her poetry and character. She responded, and the pair corresponded ceaselessly until they secretly married in 1846. They had been writing increasingly ardent letters to each other for 5 months by the time they first met in person.

There are 573 letters between them. While transcriptions of the letters have been available, romantics wanting to see the pen-and-paper whole picture only had the option of viewing the collection in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where they have been displayed since 1930. But now, Baylor University in Texas and Wellesley College have collaborated to digitize the Brownings’ letters and make them available for viewing online – complete with inkblots, smudges, signatures and the rest. That collection of love letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning can be found here.

More detail about the project available there, and via the CBC.

This blog, Paper and Salt, which is still on wobbly Bambi-legs at just one month old, seems to be written by a person after my own heart, with a love of food and reading. From the first entry, describing the rhyme and reason for the blog:

A love of good books often comes with a love of good food. It’s in the many mouth-watering descriptions we encounter in novels, the wealth of new food memoirs, and the explosion of incredible food writing and blogging online. But it isn’t just today’s writers that have a personal obsession with food. We hear about it in Ted Hughes’ letters, see it in Emily Dickinson’s recipes, and imagine it in Hemingway’s cafés. And when I hear about the food that inspired them, I want to eat it too.

This blog will attempt to recreate the dishes that iconic authors discuss in their letters, diaries, essays, and fiction. In doing so, it will be part historical discussion, part food and recipe blog, part literary fangirling. Above all, I hope it will be delicious.

I am happy to have found it, and will likely try my hand at some of the recipes posted. I especially liked Louisa May Alcott’s recipe for Apple Slump (below, after the video) that was included, for the following reason:

-It’s called ‘Apple Slump’, which, while it may be named to bring to mind autumnal depression, actually sounds delicious;

-I absolutely loved Little Women – it must have been my favourite book when I was about 13; and

-I learned that Apple Slump is also called Apple Pan Dowdy. I have wondered what Apple Pan Dowdy is (and strangely, never thought to google it) since first hearing this song when I was about 12. It’s a heck of a song. And if this dessert claims to make my eyes light up and my tummy say howdy, clearly, I have to make it.

I hope the Paper and Salt blog keeps going – I know I will be checking back.

Here is the Apple Slump Recipe or Apple Pan Dowdy Recipe:

(Adapted very slightly from Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House)

Apple Base:
5 to 6 tart apples; pared, cored and sliced (Granny Smiths work well)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or bourbon)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the inside of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. Make apple base: In a large bowl, gently mix apple slices, lemon juice, and vanilla (or bourbon). In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add the sugar mixture to the apple mixture and toss until coated.

3. Spread apple base evenly in prepared pan and bake until soft, about 20 minutes.

4. Make topping: While the apples are baking, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add egg, milk, and melted butter. Stir gently.

5. Pour flour mixture over baked apples and sprinkle walnuts evenly over the top. Continue baking 25 minutes, or until the top is brown and crusty. Cool 5 minutes and serve with your favorite ice cream (or bourbon).

Galleycat alerted me to The Composites – a Tumblr – dedicated to police sketches of literary characters. It’s definitely my site of the day. Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon, Keith Talent from London Fields, Edward Rochester (above) from Jane Eyre, Pinkie Brown from Brighton Rock, Emma from Madame Bovary….