Editors Wanted: Here's an excerpt from a review in today's Wall Street Journal of a history of Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV series). What error jumps out at you (but apparently not at the editor)?
"With this world as a backdrop, Henry Gray (1827-61) began climbing the professional ladder at St. George's Hospital in London at age 15. He didn't attend a university before starting his studies at the famed medical school attached to the hospital, and even then he focused on surgery instead of becoming a general practitioner, or apothecary-surgeon, as those doctors were then known. .. If Gray skipped a university education by choice, Henry Vandyke Carter (1831-97) initially went without one from necessity. His family was too poor to send him to college, so in the late 1840s Carter enrolled at St. George's -- Gray, 10 years his senior, was already teaching and working at the hospital -- and studied to become an apothecary-surgeon..."
Hot List: I subscribe to a few email services - from Amazon, Fodor, and others - that direct me to neat stuff on the Web or in the physical world. I often get a charge out of Very Short List, which lands in my inbox a couple of times a week. Among the things they've flagged for me recently: rare video of a '70s appearance by George Harrison on Eric Idle's "Rutland TV" comedy series where Harrison plays a pirate; the live performance archives of KEXP Seattle, a station that appears to be right up there with WXPN Philadelphia and KCRW Santa Monica as a live-acts showcase for modern music; "The End," a terrific collection of "end cards" from movies and TV shows -- no clues, you have to guess where they originally appeared; "The Big Picture," a photoblog by Alan Taylor of the Boston Globe, with huge, crystalline digital photos of news events great and small. Fun, and the price (free) is right. (BTW, Comcast Interactive Media owns a similar service, Daily Candy, that focuses on stuff of interest to women.)
: In the early Seventies, on a study tour and "roots" visit to Krakow, I was first exposed to the vibrant world of Polish jazz. Although the Iron Curtain was firmly in place, every young person seemed to tune in to DJ Willis Conover's Jazz Hour on the Voice of America. Young Poles' main connection with Western musical culture was through Conover's playlist, artists like Coltrane and Miles and Wes Montgomery. On a subsequent trip in 1977, I got to know some Polish jazz journalists, and starting writing for a Warsaw-based magazine, Jazz Forum, that was published in three languages. That was about the time that Pat Metheny was capturing attention for his first two ECM albums, and I had the pleasure of doing the first (so far as I know) internationally published interview with Pat for Jazz Forum. (He was a terrific, and enthusiastic, interview.) That's why it was a special treat to see Metheny team up with vocalist Jopek and other contemporary Polish jazz artists on this CD of originals, reworked Polish folk songs, and Metheny tunes of the Nineties retrofitted with Polish lyrics. Recorded in 2002 but just released in the States last year, this is a worthy addition to Metheny's extensive discography.
: And speaking of Metheny, his work is reimagined by the terrific classical guitarist Jason Vieaux on this 2005 tribute album. Metheny's distinctive sound limits the number of artists who try to "cover" him, but Vieaux brings wonderful dimension to these solo acoustic interpretations, particularly the sensitive opener "Every Day (I Thank You)" and a gorgeous take on "The Bat" (By the way, we met Jason at a recent house concert, and he told us that Metheny is still delightful and accessible, and that he had invited Jason to his New York apartment to compare notes when Jason was working on this CD.)
for about a month. On balance, it's a very good device -- not as life-changing as the 
that is adapted to the Kindle 2.
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