Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

In case you were sleeping in a cave this morning, The New Yorker published a satirical cover that managed to make both Barack Obama and John McCain upset.

Journalist Michael Scherer reminds us to look back at the Supreme Court's landmark opinion about cartoon art, protecting satirical cartoons everywhere, from Hustler magazine to more highbrow publications--a good legal decision for all writers and artists to re-read every few years. Check it out here.

Over at The New York Observer, Leon Neyfakh pulls back the curtain to reveal the once-nameless reviewers who create the blurb-o-rific reviews at Publisher's Weekly. Dig it:

"With this box, a little bit of PW tradition went to its grave, and the mystique of that booming PW voice, once so objective and authoritative, fractured and finally shattered by the 80-something names printed there in red ink, each referring to an individual, a person somewhere who read a book and wrote a review of it. Who are these individuals? Enthusiasts, mainly. Schoolteachers, professors, stay-at-home moms, authors. It takes all kinds."

Both Mike Scalise and Gordon Hurd linked to that inspiring clip of Ira Glass you see up top. If you ever feel sad about your own work, just watch that clip.