How I Helped L. Ron Hubbard to ‘Take Over the Planet’
Back when queer activist Kate Bornstein was a boy named Al, she was a leading member of the Church of Scientology. She served aboard L. Ron Hubbard’s flagship, and even worked directly with Hubbard on a campaign to control Scientology members more completely. Bornstein’s new memoir A Queer and Pleasent Danger explains why she found…
10 Perfectly Reasonable Explanations for “Superdickery”
Brian Cronin has been blogging for years at Comics Should be Good, and now he’s edited a brand new book of comic book trivia, Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? To celebrate, he’s created a list of 10 reasons why Superman isn’t as much of a dick as you think he is. The nifty website…
The Secret to Becoming a Magician (in 1882)
What’s amazing about the complete scan of 1882’s brilliant, batty, bizarre How to Become a Magician over at the Public Domain Review isn’t just the fact that it tells you how to make ice in a “red-hot vessel” (you’ll need a platinum cup and “sulphuric” acid). Rather, it’s that this book has that weird Victorian…