Perhaps because it's in the Drinking Issue, Cornel Bonca's review of Paula L. Woods' new novel Strange Bedfellows (featured in Selected Reviews from the Weekly on the sidebar) reminded me both of my own experiences with bad novels and my favorite quote from one very good novel, Waguih Ghali's Beer in the Snooker Club:
What do people who do not drink do on such occasions? Face the facts perhaps. But facing a fact is one thing, and overcoming it is another. Cognac was going to overcome the facts.
Yes, OC Weekly investigative reporter Nick Schou got his mug shot in today's Los Angeles Times. No, he wasn't participating again in a riot, peeking inside an undercover DEA 18-wheeler or even driving solo in the HOV lane.
A year or so ago, Schou thought it'd be fun to perform his normal work duties, raise an infant son, pamper his beautiful wife, teach a journalism class at UCI and write a book. Sure, he looks like a zombie most days now and is often heard mumbling to himself, but he can poin
