two links for my more cultured readers.
Mark Liberman at the Language Log investigates the history of Dr Syntax.


Syntax was a satirical character who enjoyed some fame between 1807 and 1820, thanks in large to the excellent aquatints by the great Thomas Rowlandson. He was a lampoon upon one Dr Gilpin whose fahionable principles of the picturesque were joshed by Jane Austin in Nothanger Abbey (two lovely paragraphs quoted).
(link via drjon)
*********
Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields plays songs from the band's new album, Distortion, and talks about his music.

"I want to be an artist's model,
an odalisque au naturel,
I should be good at spin the bottle,
while I've still got something left to sell."

The best song writer of our times, if you ask me.
(link via Hayley Campbell)
*********
And one that is an oft visited subject here at Campbell blogspot, Courtroom Sketch Artists.

"Is courtroom sketching a full time job? Are these people fine artists or commercial artists? And what kind of artwork do they do outside the courtroom? I decided to contact a range of courtroom sketch artists and see what I could find out."