I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” using only the 1000 most common words: surprisingly the same. Via upgoer5, which prompts you to explain things the same way xkcd did.

Alaya Johnson, Wicked City: Zephyr Hollis, vampire rights activist and general do-gooder, has some trouble with the mayor in this alternate Roaring Twenties NYC; Prohibition is in full swing and the city council is about to vote on the legality of a similar intoxicant that vampires use, when tainted bottles start killing vampires in a very unusual way. Also, Zephyr is bound to a djinn, and if she doesn’t start wishing soon Very Bad Things will happen, unless she can convince a different demon to break the bond. I liked all the worldbuilding—which includes a chilling explanation of Zephyr’s unusual immunity to vampirism—and Zephyr’s prickly friendships with a psychic and a reporter, both women struggling to do important things in a world that didn’t want them to be important. I’m hoping for a sequel soon! (There’s a short backstory bit up at Tor for completists.)

Stacia Kane, Personal Demons: Therapist Meg has a new radio show as “the demon slayer.” Unfortunately, Meg is psychic, and real demons are convinced she’s targeting them—so they plan to get her first. A hot (literally!) stranger shows up to protect her, along with a meddling reporter, and other threats. To survive, Meg’s going to have to figure out how to control her powers—and her anger. There was plenty of worldbuilding and explicit sex, and Meg’s anger at bad things happening to her was never treated as wrong, just in need of tactical refinement. Still, for whatever reason, this series starter didn’t grab me with the urgency of Kane’s Churchwitch books.

I didn’t know that all of original Elfquest is free online.

Another piece of news to me: the identity of this redshirt who survived the whole TOS episode. 

On the fantasy of competition in education: “[A]ll schools will be excellent when they compete. That’s why all those programs on all those channels on your TV dial are excellent, and why every product in the marketplace is excellent.”

Women, Men and Fiction: Notes on How Not to Answer Hard Questions: Jeffrey Eugenides and the things he doesn’t need to see.

Revenge: was I the only one ( Spoilers are after your daughter )

( Two books and a novella )