May 25, 2005

Followups

Harriet Klausner, Revisited: If you're a frequent customer at Amazon.com, odds are that you've come across the work of Harriet Klausner, Amazon's "#1 Reviewer". Harriet has 'read' and 'reviewed' over 9,000 books; most reviews are nothing but a poorly-written recap of the book, occasionally accompanied by some regurgitated jacket copy. Despite all of her 'reading', Harriet has never met a book she didn't like -- practically everything gets four or five stars.

Last year, I wondered who or what was behind the Klausner juggernaut. A few months ago, a Wall Street Journal writer wondered the same thing, interviewed her, and wrote a profile.

"The only days she doesn't read four books are the days she reads five ... " How can you even pretend to 'read' four or five books a day?

The LEGO Power Builder Comes To California: When we visited Legoland Billund during a trip to Denmark last year, our favorite ride was the Power Builder (scroll down to the bottom of the page), a "build-it-yourself" ride that consisted of a couple of seats attached to the business end of a programmable robotic arm. Now the Power Builder has come to Legoland California, where it'll be called the "Knight's Tournament". Reason enough on its own for us to go back to Legoland? Probably not. But it was a lot of fun when we rode it in Denmark!

Posted by Kevin at May 25, 2005 09:41 PM