At the risk of extreme arrogance, I would put the first season of Lost alongside any accomplishment in television drama, including those of the idols who made me want to work in the medium.
Even though I quit the show after its second season — never to watch it again until the series finale — I have never ceased to be fiercely proud, and defensive, of our accomplishments as a writing staff, and those of the show’s creators.
If you are reading this, it might be because you asked me how it all began and I sent you here. Or it might be because — as still happens with depressing regularity — one of the show’s detractors, be that a critic, or, more vexingly, someone who has just created a show and wants to make sure the media realizes that they are above making the mistakes we made (all the while cribbing our best moves) has come out purporting yet again to have some sort “proof” that “the writers of Lost did not know what they were doing.”
In our technology-obsessed world, libraries provide tranquil sanctuaries for zoning out with physical books.
Regardless of the ultimate fate of the printed book, reports of the imminent death of the library as a physical entity seem to have been greatly exaggerated. – Alex Johnson, author of “Improbable Libraries”
“Libraries have a long history of overcoming geographic, economic and political challenges to bring the written word to an audience,” writes Alex Johnson, a journalist at the U.K. newspaper the Independent, in the introduction to his fascinating new book, “Improbable Libraries.” Johnson should know — both of his parents are librarians. He spent the last few years documenting what he calls “the new library revolution.”
Maxwell Perkins served as the head editor of Scribner for over 37 years. By his death in 1947 he had worked with some of the most vital and enduring writers in American literature—including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe. Regarded as one of the most creative and visionary editors of all time, Perkins’s letters to his authors are evidence of his deep care and talent. In this letter from 1940, Perkins reaches out to Hemingway following the completion of For Whom the Bell Tolls to share some encouragement.
English: Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Michael Martin – Former Lost writer and producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach has written a highly informative essay looking back on the conception of the show and what it was like to be in the writers’ room for the first two seasons. He also has a lot to say about the question of whether the show’s creators were “making it up as they went along,” noting the answer is a complicated one, as is often the case for TV. With Lost, many notable elements fans would come to know as the series progressed were conceived very early on, even as the nature of doing an ongoing TV show also led to new elements being added all the time.
Once a week, after touring the Caribbean, the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas calls into its home port in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for what is called “turnaround day.”
Just as an airplane makes money only when it is flying, keeping a cruise ship out at sea is essential for its profitability. But instead of turning over a few hundred airline passengers, this ship offloads 6,000 people, takes on new supplies and welcomes 6,000 more travelers — all in under 12 hours.
English: Royal Caribbean International’s, “MS Oasis of the Seas”, captured as she makes her way into Port Everglades, Florida completing her 14-day delivery voyage from STX Europe, Turku, Finland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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