The Paris Review recently re-published a set of interviews with Kurt Vonnegut and posted them on their site (one of the interviewers was George Plimpton!).

Excerpt:

INTERVIEWER: Did the study of anthropology later color your writings?
VONNEGUT: It confirmed my atheism, which was the faith of my fathers anyway. Religions were exhibited and studied as the Rube Goldberg inventions I’d always thought they were. We weren’t allowed to find one culture superior to any other. We caught hell if we mentioned races much. It was highly idealistic.

Here’s the complete text via The Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 64.

Frank Zappa was a great musician and composer of some really good music. I really like his instrumental works. Particularly his guitar albums like Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar, Guitar, and Return of the Son of Shut Up ‘N Play Your Guitar. (Not the most innovative names but the music rocks the universe.)

I was never much of a fan of anything he did lyrically. His lyrics were, um, nuts at best. Songs like Truck Driver Divorce, Why does it hurt when I pee?, and Crew Slut were good songs that had a purpose and all. But personally, because of the comical aspect of his lyrics, I think they hurt his credibility to appeal to a wider audience than he already had.

But what was even more bizarre was this little gem – a 1967 television commercial he did for Ludens Cough Drops:

Although it was rather strange, it was Frank so I’m not surprised.

I miss him.

I love happy stories. A dog named Leo stayed behind in a burning home in Melbourne, Australia, to guard a box of kittens! Four family members and one dog escaped the fire.

One family member said “But Leo was still inside standing over the kittens, and we were scared he would get burned,” she said. “We couldn’t find Sabrina (mother of the kittens) and we thought they would all die.”

The children sobbed with relief when firefighters rescued and revived 11-month-old Leo.

“Then we were told there was a box of kittens still in there, and firefighters returned to grab them too.” Cdr Brown said.

He said Leo licked the kittens with joy when he saw them. “It was a wonderful sight,” he said.

The kittens were unharmed because a cover on their box stopped them suffering smoke inhalation.

Yaaay!

Read the local report on (with video) here.