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By Alice Northover

It’s been an eventful week in Oxford spires (although I write this from the New York office which contains no spires). We had a kerfuffle over the OED and we’re gearing up for the Place of the Year extravaganza next week. So what have we learned in between?

Neither plank nor batman nor owl of night keep these students from the swift completion of their appointed reads. But milk might.

Appropriate after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, our OED Appeal of the week: Doorbuster.

The DSM definitions are always a source of controversy, the newest being personality disorders.

The end is in sight for the published works of Leonhard Euler.

How do you come up with the perfect brand name? Wordnik [good name] has the scoop.

Can you own page turning?

Our Australian cousins, the ANDC, have Ned Kelly in words and phrases (that I would very much like to adopt).

Wikipedia is partnering with JSTOR, so those citations may be getting better.

NYU Local examines replyallcalyse, or how Nicholas Cage will make your inbox explode.

Are you a hipster? What your reading habits reveal (about your cigarette jeans-wearing, Williamsburg neighbors, not you of course).

New on the dictionary insult list: “Give him credit this week, he’s got his very own word in the English dictionary, omnishambles.” (As opposed to the more traditional: “If you look up stupid in the dictionary, your face is there.”)

Can e-books help get books to remote communities in Latin America?

The Irish Times has appointed a poetry editor. (h/t Leslie Kaufman)

I’m sad not more people read Rob St. Amant’s amazing article on robots replicating animal tool use (promoting OUPblog content I know but it’s awesome).

Alexandra Lange on place setting anxiety.

And finally, stay curious my friends.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alice Northover joined Oxford University Press as Social Media Manager in January 2012. She is editor of the OUPblog, constant tweeter @OUPAcademic, daily Facebooker at Oxford Academic, and Google Plus updater of Oxford Academic, amongst other things. You can learn more about her bizarre habits on the blog.

Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.

UNCF Forum Series: To Be Young, Digital & Black from Spotlight on Vimeo. Taken from a public forum hosted by The United Negro College Fund and the MacArthur Foundation on digital media and learning in multicultural contexts in March at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin. “The access gap hasn’t been solved entirely, but a significant portion of it has been addressed,” Watkins said in an

Is it me or does the week before a long weekend always go particularly slowly?  Wednesday feels like a month ago.  Luckily, despite my whining, Friday has arrived and so has Memorial Day Weekend.  I hope you have lovely weather, delicious barbecues, and some time to relax with a good book.  Below are some links to get you through the day.  See you all on Tuesday!

Tina Fey wins the Mark Twain Prize for Humor!

Speaking of Mark Twain, here comes his autobiography.

Are we really friends with our friends?

Sequencing the bugs in our bodies.

A simple swab can save a life.

Do paywalls kill traffic?

The unicorn at Microsoft was real.

The Kagan kids.

Bookshelves to make you drool.

EMT’s in Massachusetts and New Hampshire faked their papers.

the first time it rained on these open leaves; learning to dance ...-Andromeda Jazmon risen before the ruby rose can bloom; shocking red thorns ...-Andromeda Jazmon It rained a lot the last couple days and I grabbed a few minutes in the morning to take photos. These new leaves have only been open a week or so; this is their very first rain shower. They're babies. By the end of summer they

Lana Goldsmith, Intern

Hello OUPblog fans. After two fantastic months of coding posts, choosing excerpts, and various other tasks, my internship at Oxford University Press has come to a close. While I am looking forward to my future endeavors, I am going to miss working here very much. I learned more than I could have ever imagined from our titles and from my bright, dedicated colleagues. I will continue to enjoy the blog from the other side in the future. In the meantime, remember: there was country music in the 1920s, we can reform the transportation industry, and you can never read too much. Thank you and enjoy!

Is social media worth it to promote your business, even if you don’t sell kayaks?

What Franz Kafka, T. S. Elliot or Charlotte Bronte’s salaries would be if they were writing today.

You have a Friend Request from: the FBI.

The true breakfast of champions!

Make your bookshelf more aesthetically pleasing.

The other other Russian Classics.

Adding words to the dictionary will make it hella heavy.

Play Bingo with your book review.

An infographic of what people look at on the Internet.

The world’s longest outdoor bookcase.

Play with your Easter food.

By Kirsty McHugh, OUP UK

Link Love comes to you this week from me, Kirsty, in the UK office. I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend, and I hope you are too (though I hear you Americans have some big football match or something…?). Here’s what I’ve been reading this week.

Is it last orders for the good old British pint glass as we know it?

Going back to the future with steampunk.

The big sporting event in Britain this weekend is the start of the annual Six Nations Rugby Union contest. I’m a big RU fan, so I’ll be digging my Scotland jersey out of the wardrobe in preperation. Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio talks to The First Post about this year’s tournament.

How do you stop a car with a jammed accelerator pedal?

The Times looks at women desperate to have a baby girl.

The Guardian’s Top Ten Literary Stepmothers.

You can listen to a podcast of Robert Douglas-Fairhurst talk about the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Great Expectations on the Bookhugger website.

There has apparently been a record number of submissions to The Bookseller’s annual Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year.

John Lanchester on why the world of work features in so few modern novels.

Breaking bad news with Twitter Haiku.

Happy 6th Birthday Facebook!

KittenWar: because everyone needs some cuteness on a Friday.

Kirsty McHugh

By the time that you read this, fair readers, I will be on my way home to Glasgow for the weekend to see my mum. I’m very excited. However, for those of you stuck at your desks, allow me to entertain you with some of my favourite recent blog posts and articles.

Sad news for the BBC Radio 4 listeners amongst us: Norman Painter, who has been the voice of Phil Archer since The Archers began in 1950, has died at the age of 85.

How important is similar taste in books in a relationship?

According to recent research, literacy  changes the structure of the brain.

Maurice Sendak tells parents worried by Where the Wild Things Are to ‘go to hell’.

A dog from Shropshire has been named the world’s oldest. Atta boy Otto!

The battle for Jack Kerouac’s estate.

Philip Stone of The Bookseller on books by celebrities.

Queen Victoria’s celebrity hippo.

A vexed owl. The second-last photo is my favourite.

An article celebrating 50 years of Asterix.

by Cassie, Publicity

Happy Friday, everyone! Today is, sadly, my very last summer Friday. After this, it’s back to the regular schedule. I have to say, I’m very much looking forward to my four day weekend - this week felt really long. If you only have a three day weekend (I know, how terrible), then here are some links to get you through the rest of the day!

The top 10 most pirated books of the year (so far).

How many solar panels would it take to power the whole world? Way less than you think!

I’d have trouble sticking to just books I’ve read this year, only because I reread a lot and can never remember when was the last time I read something. But still, this is a fun meme.

The New Yorker’s Book Bench blog looks at a “new literacy.” (Also, OUP book The F-Word is the Bench Pick of the week!)

Who’s updating Wikipedia? Wall Street Journal blog Digits looks at the breakdown.

Is this the future of airline seating? Doesn’t look very comfortable, does it?

Popular Science is ditching the pay model for their online content.

Live in New York? NYU Press has put together a fun scavenger hunt for the long weekend!

I love it when io9 comes up with practical uses for experimental technologies.

Greetings from Oxford, where we are currently between downpours of rain, though I’m assured that it is still officially summer. Who knew? Anyway, here’s my pick of the web this week.

The Guardian asks what’s the best TV show of the 2000s? Frontrunner so far seems to be The Wire (although I voted for The West Wing).

With the Edinburgh Fringe kicking off this week, here’s a list of the 10 strangest festival venues.

Mary Beard on what computers do to handwriting.

The longlist of 2009’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced.

Stephen Fry on America’s place in the world.

Apparently there might have been cannibals in England 9000 years ago.

How Orwellian was George Orwell?

Farewell John Hughes, who has died at the age of 59. The Guardian looks at his career in clips.

The secret royals: illegitimate children of British monarchs.

Kirsty McHugh

Link Love is coming to you from sunny Oxford today. Summer has finally arrived in merry England, and since it will probably only last about 3 and a half days, I’m fully intending to make the most of it. I hope it’s as lovely wherever you are in the world, and may you all have a splendid June weekend.

Now, on with the link love.

Kathy Rooney has won the £3,000 Kim Scott Walwyn Prize for outstanding achievements by women in publishing. The prize was started to commemorate Kim Scott Walwyn, who died in 2002, aged just 45. She was OUP UK’s publishing director. Congratulations Kathy!

Cartoons for turbulent times.

The Guardian reports that British libraries are increasingly using Twitter. OUPblog is on Twitter, and so am I. Are you following us?

Apparently every time Dame Judi Dench swears in a film, the British Board of Film Classification receives complaints.

An excellent space-saving solution for bookworms in small houses.

Prospect Magazine asks whether Obama and Medvedev can press the reset button.

If you, like me, can’t resist nosying at other people’s bookshelves, then Lookshelves is the website for you!

A very sad story about a pork pie from the Times Archive Blog.

If I have one criticism about OUPblog, it’s that there aren’t enough cats. Yes, I am A Cat Lady. Unsurprisingly, I am a fan of Under the Paw, a blog by A Cat Man. He’s chosen the top 4 most witless looking cats of 2009.

Congratulations to Alastair Reynolds, a British science fiction writer, who has just signed a mammoth £1million book deal.

So you think you know how to read?

by Cassie, Publicity

Hey everyone, happy Friday! For those of you who are, like me, stuck in the office this Friday, I have some links to help keep you occupied. Hope all is quiet and you have a chance to catch up on everything you’re behind on - I’m certainly going to try!

The Daily Dish’s Andrew Sullivan has been doing a great job following the news out of Iran. Here’s a list of his posts on what’s happening over there.

Speaking of Iran, Twitter has been huge in helping Iranians get reports out of the country as the government cracked down. Twitter even delayed some important maintenance work to make sure citizens could be heard.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos comes out against the Google settlement.

New York’s Restaurant Week is coming up–and you can make your reservations early!

Did you know there’s a fire burning under Pennsylvania that’s been going for over forty years?

OUP’s Evan Schnittmann looks at net pricing vs. list pricing for ebooks.

The Palm Pre and the new iPhone 3GS have both recently launched. How do you know which one is the smartphone for you? Gizmodo helps you decide!

It’s the return of sunspots!

I really hope this movie comes to New York. It looks incredibly sad and incredibly disturbing, but also like something we should all see.

Here are a few links to online summer reading programs and ideas to keep your children having fun with reading and writing over the vacation months. Reading Rockets This site is chock full of FUN ideas and links. TD Bank With this program, children can earn $10 for reading 10 books. Scholastic Children can earn prizes for reading with this summer reading challenge. Reading Warriors

by Cassie, Publicity

I don’t know about y’all, but this week has been very, very long for me. Luckily, it’s almost over! Hopefully these links will help you get through the rest of Friday. If not, well, you have more problems than I can help you with.

Rest in peace, Eden Ross Lipson.

Did you miss this one? I did. Browning’s birthday was last week.

Like YA author Rick Riordan? Sad that he finished the last book in his Olympians series? Here are videos to tide you over until the next great YA book comes out!

Having trouble getting a publisher for your book? You’re not alone. So did some now-famous authors.

Get some inspiration on what to do with your tiny apartment!

Eating disorders can also kill your sex drive.

Sarah Palin’s writing a memoir. Will you buy it?

Stephanie Meyer wins author of the year at the Choice Children’s book awards.

A new collaborative blog for women has launched: Double X.

Blogging for Academics: future OUP author Jeffrey Wasserstrom (China in the 21st Century) looks at ten misconceptions historians make about blogging.

There’s a possibility the space shuttle Intrepid may land in the Hudson. I so hope that happens.

Purdy, Director of Publicity

Bernard Schwartz, Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd St Y recently contacted me regarding an event with a forthcoming OUP author, Ruth Franklin, Senior editor of The New Republic. As luck would have it Franklin’s book with OUP is not scheduled for publication this year, but it did get me to thinking about National Poetry Month and what sort of run-ins I’ve had with poets and spaces friendly to poets fairly recently. So here is some link love for some of my favorite poets, spaces, and sites that have crossed my path of late.

I understand the world is bigger than NYC and poetry abounds beyond our five boroughs here in NYC, so check out poetry in your neck of the woods by visiting this cool site…Poetry Aloud.

The Unterberg Poetry Center’s reading series is one of the most revered in the country. It is every writer’s dream to be asked to read at Unterberg. Check out Ruth Franklin, senior Editor of The New Republic at the Center. Ruth, where’s your ms?

I ran into Sarah Lang after an event at McNally-Jackson Bookstore here in NYC. I found out she is a poet, a published poet no less, and her book is The Work of Days. Here’s a Q&A I came across. Canadians rule!

You may remember the Buffalo Poets. They used to post some of their poetry on this blog a few years ago. For a bunch of anarchists, they seem to be quite organized these days. I still admire their talent, and their dedication. Check out their stuff and readings at here.

KGB Bar here in NYC is a performance space, and a bar, and they also have an online lit magazine. Nice work, comrades. Click on their calendar for poetry events on Monday…and so much more.

It is not often that I feel like the week flew by but I swear I woke up this morning shocked that it was Friday.  And what a lovely Friday it is.  The weather is warming up, March is well under way, and spring is just around the corner.  I hope your week was as lovely as mine.  Below are some links to help you procrastinate your way to 5 pm.

The results of “Queryfail” day on Twitter.  The lesson here?  Follow guidelines!

She’s back! Maira Kalman takes on Lincoln in her NYTimes blog.

The serotonin theory of depression may not be wrong. But it is definitely incomplete.

Yelp comes under fire.

Charting the recession.

Growing up Jewish in America.

A toddler writes for 30 Rock?

The best books for children from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Keira Knightley to star in Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation.

Why are people always telling me graduate school is a bad idea? Why must they always be right!

A inspired use of Twitter by Skittles.com.

The one exhibition I must see this spring.

On the “didactic thrust” of The Wizard of Oz.

by Cassie, Publicity Assistant

Hey everyone, happy Friday! Becca let me do link love this week so I’d stop bugging her with all the fun stuff I’ve been finding. Hopefully these will help you get through the rest of the day. Enjoy the weekend!

I knew I loved Tetris for a reason.

The most blurbed authors. Can I be David Sedaris?

See the OUPblog twitter for the correct usage of Twitter. Otherwise, see this.

A new watch phone. Do you hold it up to your wrist and talk into it?

Baen Books is offering some of their titles for free!

And in the same vein, one dollar ebooks from Orbit.

How to make an awesome Kindle cake.

Pretty products that are probably not very functional.

Are you prepared for the zombie invasion?

We had launch this week. This might have been helpful for a few people.

Email from Michelle Obama: Dear Cloudscome, One week from today, on January 19th, Barack and I will join thousands of people all across the country for an extraordinary day of service.I recorded a short video to tell you more about this important effort. Please take a minute to watch it and sign up to host or attend a service event near you. Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are

I always love hearing about a new site that is dedicated to getting the very best books in the hands of children and young adults. That is why I was so excited to be part of the MotherTalk blog tour for James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead site. Patterson is dedicating it to helping parents, teachers and librarians find the books that kids latch onto and can't put down. The books are listed in

Ali, over at the blog Diversity Rocks! is organizing a challenge to help us diversify our reading this year. I am committed to reading at least 12 books by authors of diverse culture/ethnicity/nationalities, preferably authors new to me. She's letting us define "diversity" however that is meaningful to us. I am looking forward to digging in to these books on my GoodReads "to read" list: Children

This is the last link love until 2009 (wow that is the first time I have written 2009 in a blog post!) and it is filled with some of my favorite things (rubber duckies, The Lorax etc.) I want to wish you all a joyous holiday season and a very healthy new year.  Enjoy your procrastination now because this is the last “real” Friday of 2008!  I can almost taste the champagne…

Congratulations to the winner of Williamsburg Spelling Bee, who will receive an OED!

Does The Corrections represent literature of the Bush era?  I’m not sure but it is one of my favorite books.

Do you trust Google?

Were The Wild Things Jewish?

Two of my favorite things, Mr. T and rubber duckies!

Obama, the college years.

Help with flow charts.

The Lorax, ahead of his time (and the star of my favorite Seuss book).

Have you seen Milk yet?  No?  Go now!

I agree, Canada rocks.

Check out the OUPblog twitter (shameless self-promotion.)

Lemurs survived HIV?

Shalom Auslander on anger and Israel.

I've just found a new craft blog called Mama to Mama and I am excited about joining in on her Caps to Cap Haitien project. She is organizing a drive to make and send handmade newborn infant caps to be distributed with Konbit Sante birthing kits in Haiti: "The Caps to Cap-Haitien Project: A Partnership with Konbit Sante, will initially provide newborn jersey caps to be distributed in Safe

With election day coming in just three more days I am excited to join in with bloggers all over the kidlitosphere who are blogging about our voting rights. Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray, Lee Wind and Gregory K. at Gottabook hatched a plan to bring us all together to Blog the Vote. I am hearing reports on the radio that record voter turnouts are expected. Long lines, problems with voting

Cassie Ammerman, Publicity Assistant

Happy Friday! And Happy Halloween! It’s been a really great week for fun and interesting links, which means you guys get the benefits today. Hopefully these will keep you occupied as you slog through the day, anticipating the revelry tonight. I’m actually skipping the Halloween festivities this year, so someone out there have a drink for me!

I found this one last week and was so excited about it I had to save it to share with you guys. How cool is this? There’s a new state of matter.

National Novel Writing Month starts November 1st! Here’s your chance to sign up and write that novel you’re always talking about.

Not only do stars make “noise,” but they sound like….the theme from the original Star Trek!?! How cool is that?

People in the book business (myself included) are always asking what makes you buy a book. But what makes you decide NOT to buy a book? For me, it’s comparisons. “Reminiscent of…” (insert some literary heavyweight) sounds like the author has no originality.

It’s the 104th birthday of the New York City subway! And it’s more congested than ever, which I can attest on my daily hour-each-way commute…

Some fun (or not so fun) robot links: First, creating a truly evil robot; second, we already have robots on the ground in the Middle East, and apparently they’re doing a good job.

Who said bookmarks have to be boring, plain pieces of paper?

How many of the 100 most common English words do you know? I won’t admit my score here…

Literary character themed Halloween party! Check it out if you’re in New York.

I admit it; I’m a Tetris fanatic. So the sight of this fills me with nerdish glee.

It seems like I see something like this every week. Here’s another library I would love to have someday…

You guys are probably tired of news from Mars, but I’m not! Now there’s evidence that Mars had water for a lot longer than we thought.

And finally, in the spirit of Halloween and for those of us who didn’t get to carve a pumpkin in real life, there’s virtual pumpkin carving!

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Congratulations, you have made it to Friday!  So sit back and relax, forget about the economy for a little while and peruse the link love below.  Not a bad way to start your weekend, right?

Why Andrew Sullivan blogs.

Are the debates boring or is Facebook just irresistible?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s love letters head to court.

In transgender transitions how young is too young?

One boy’s tale of wanting to be female.

Fun with food.

Joanne Goldwater’s abortion.

How well do you eyeball?

A stark reminder to always get a second opinion.

Khmer Rouge trials delayed again.

It’s on the tip of my tongue!

The future of music?

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I've started a new blog at: http://parsingfairuse.blogspot.com/ to discuss copyright and blogging. I'm in grad school for my library science degree and this is one of our assignments. I've chosen to focus on copyright and writing online, specifically on blogging and posting poetry written by other writers. Since I've long enjoyed Friday Poetry posts I want to explore the best practices in the