As he recently told The Guardian, all of the packing on of pounds for parts like his paunchy baseball manager in A League Of Their Own, or the dramatic loss of them for movies like Cast Away, “may have had something to do” with getting diabetes—a hypothesis that CBS News medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips agrees…

As far as cinema goes, I think the main challenge there is that, even at its most auteur, cinema is a far more collaborative medium than even the stage, the closest equivalent that the Nobel currently recognizes.

Back in 2008, I believe, after Le Clezio won, somebody associated with the Academy said they thought American literature was too isolated from the global conversation (Le Clezio, when asked, said he didn't agree, and named Roth as somebody he thought deserved to win).

Before he died a lot of people said Ingmar Bergman would be a great candidate for the Literature Prize, given the literacy and importance of his screenplays, and the fact that he was a director meant that his films reflected his work (so he's really not any different from a playwright, several of whom have won the…

Davies or Richler would have been my preference for the first Canadian Laureate, but they're both dead (and the former never really got the international recognition he deserved; he was only nominated for the Booker once, and when they did that Lost Booker thing for 1970, with 30+ years' remove, they still didn't…

I'm Canadian, so wishful thinking may also have played a role, but I thought she was a strong possibility for a win beforehand through applying a number of factors:

Michael Ondaatje, though I don't really care for him.

The only one of her collections I've read so far is Who Do You Think You Are? (published outside Canada as The Beggar Maid), which was good.

Munro's win means I wouldn't expect anybody from the US or Mexico to win for at least that amount of time; another Canadian would probably have to wait longer than that.

Europe goes by country.  Most other countries go by region.  China's Mo Yan won last year, so there won't be another East Asian winner for a few years, in all likelihood.

Of living authors, Margaret Atwood would be the most obvious.  The late Mordecai Richler and Robertson Davies were reasonably well-known (the former was the first serious novelist from Canada to attract real international attention, back in the 1950s).

I was confused by people thinking Murakami was going to win this year.  Mo Yan won last year, and unless the previous year's winner was European the Nobel goes to a different continent (there have never been two winners from Asia, Africa, Oceania, North America or South America in a row).

Charming.

I saw the preview screening of this on Saturday.  One of my favourites of the year so far.

The title "Bangerz" evokes irrational anger in me.

"Leftenant" just means he's British, which would be obvious from his accent.

I thought this was a really good debut.  It's remarkable how coherent a sound she already has, and I find it quite impressive that there seems to be space on the Billboard charts for music that's so minimalist in a lot of ways.

They did indeed say 1773; what I meant was, the show makes it seem like the Revolution was already well underway then, with an organized Continental Army, the British bringing in a super weapon to affect the balance of power, etc.

While its plotting could still use a bit of fine-tuning, this show has gotten off to a remarkably sure start with its characters — both the leads, and now Jenny, feel really well-developed after only four episodes (less than that, in Jenny's case).  Though the show's regular cast list feels a bit weird, because Jenny…

Brody vs. Dexter!