Martin Schneider writes:

A few weeks ago it was reported that the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, had purchased the letters and ephemera of David Foster Wallace. One item of note was his dictionary, which contained various markings. It's difficult to think of another writer for whom the personal dictionary would be of such special interest, but no popular writer ever used such pointedly obscure words so frequently and so winningly.

Now Slate has cleverly provided a list of words circled by Wallace. The words on the list couldn't be better, they are almost all quite obscure; I think many highly literate people will be unfamiliar with a great many of them. They are (continued)

Martin Schneider writes:

I'm finding the April 26 issue of The New Yorker (green cover) kind of delightful. In no particular order:

1. Hendrik Hertzberg's Comment is excellent and also clarifies a subject that I'd pretty much missed, President Obama's recent successes on the nuclear proliferation front. If you think you might have missed it too, do check it out.

1a. Hertzberg quotes Obama's "Dmitri, we agreed" comment to Medvedev that apparently sealed the deal in the end.

The line possesses ... an odd echo* of some of the most delicious dialogue in Dr. Strangelove, which movie Hertzberg cites (continued)

Martin Schneider writes:

By now, everyone who cares knows that Pavement has reunited and is touring. They've got several dates at Central Park in September, tickets to which cost Lord knows how much, and they're playing some festivals, including Coachella and Pitchfork. So far, the word is positive: the band sounds good and they're motivated (always a problem with Pavement).

I belonged to the original cadre of Pavement geeks. I fell for them hard in 1993, when I first heard their first album Slanted and Enchanted, and I bought everything they released until they broke up. Pavement was my first serious musical obsession as an adult, and for many years they were the band that most defined my taste and outlook. I was really into them. Still am. They're a great band.

I saw them four times in the 1990s, and those shows were mostly transcendent experiences, the kind of shows that only happen when a true favorite is performing, the kind of shows you look forward to for weeks.

The question arises: should I see Pavement a decade after their original incarnation? I'm certainly tempted, but ... what exactly would I be (continued)