Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 09:05:39 -0400
From: Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Another new way to read books
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Michael Walsh wrote:
> > ekovar at panix.com 10/2/2006 2:00:08 PM >>> A friend sent:
> >
> > " - by email!
> >
> > http://www.dailylit.com/
> >
> > It takes books and breaks them into pieces that can be read in 5
> > minutes or so, then sends them to you by email every day (or more
> > often, if you choose). War and Peace is 675 parts, so if you choose
> >  only to read one part per weekday, you can finish it off in just
> > 135 weeks, or slightly more than 2.5 years."
> >
> > Okay, very few people here may be interested in that.  In fact,
> > most of the books that are up thus far are fairly 'literary'.  But
> > they have the complete Edgar Allan Poe, several by H.G. Wells, a
> > Shakespeare play I've never read, and a lot of other things.  Thus
> > far there doesn't seem to
>
> > be a way to suggest books, link them with Gutenberg, or various
> > other ways of adding to the collection.  Still, getting a book in
> > sections rather
>  than
> > trying to read it all online or print it out has a certain appeal.
>
>  1976 or so... I was working at the B. Dalton at Springfield Mall.
>  Radio in the back room was tuned to WGTB which was doing a reading,
>  about 30 minutes or so, each day of Moby Dick.  I don't think I heard
>  the end, 'cause the Jesuits pulled the plug on the station due to,
>  amongst other things, the birth control PSAs.
>
>  And I sem to recall a certain Dr Progresso spinning those vinyl
>  disks...

It's nice to be remembered.  Actually, the Jesuits pulled the plug in
1976 for a month or three, and when the station returned to the air the
"news collective" was gone and music dominated.  No loss, from my point
of view (I'd been a Faithful Listener since 1972).  I joined the staff
(as "Dr Progresso") in the summer of 1977.  In early 1979 the new
president of Georgetown killed the station, returning the license to the
FCC (despite over 100,000 signatures on a petition to save the
station).  Turns out that previously, as president of Fordham, he'd done
the same thing, and his parents had been active as broadcasters in the
'30s (draw your own conclusions).

The frequency went to UDC (WDCU), who made it a jazz station, but were
forced off the air by the mayor of DC.  Currently it's being used by
C-SPAN to broadcast the audio to their TV channel, a criminal waste of
FM bandwidth.  (There are no "open" FM frequencies in the DC area.)

*Sigh*....

--Ted White