...when the Sunday Funnies didn't come wrapped in motor oil ads.

Happy Easter, Passover, Spring. My marathon of briefing concludes tomorrow (for the time being), so more regular posting should resume around here, uh, soon. In the meantime, don't miss what should be great coverage of O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference next week—great speakers, loads o' bloggers—and, as usual, the Sunday L.A. Times has some worthwhile reads:

• "The Freshest Spin, Where lawyers see piracy, talent scouts see potential. It's the hip-hop mix tape:" "While the legal and financial departments at record labels see mix tapes as part of the piracy threat, many of the artists, and executives such as Morales who scout talent, see the mix tape as a filter and a proving ground. He says the wave of mix tape stars is just now starting to build. 'It's just going to get bigger and bigger. You can feel it.'"
• "The Internet: A Novel Approach," by Danielle Crittenden about her novel amanda.bright@home, first published in serial form online by the Wall Street Journal and Canada's National Post, and available in hardcover next month. Ms. Crittenden's reflections on this experience are intriguing on many fronts, including the effects of instantaneous reader feedback, and the fact she sold the story to Warner Books while the serial was running. The plot features a career woman who chucks it all to become a mom: "Having made the big decision to quit work, they often seemed as stranded with their children as a lifelong city dweller who sells his condo to take up organic farming." [Update: The novel, as it appeared in serial form.]
• And for fun and general edification, "On Kentucky's Bourbon Trail" and "Inventing Calvino."