Pills gave Plath suicidal feelings, says an AP wire story describing the contents of some of Ted Hughes’ letters recently made public after their acquisition by the British Library.

According to the published extracts, Hughes (said) “the key factor” in Plath’s death was that she mistakenly swallowed the wrong kind of pills, which gave her suicidal feelings.

Hughes did not name the drug, but wrote that Plath had taken it once before while living in America and had suffered an adverse reaction, the newspaper said.

Don’t get me started again on the vilification of antidepressants as the cause of suicide among the severely and, unfortunately sometimes fatally, depressed, about which I wrote most recently when the manufacturer of paroxetine (Paxil) was successfully sued by the family of a depressed murderer taking that medication. As you know, it is usually more accurate to point the finger at the way in which these medications are prescribed and monitored. In fact, in this case “the anti-depressant was sold under a different brand name in Britain and prescribed for Plath by her doctor, who did not know the effect they would have on her, the Sunday Telegraph said.” More to the point, could Hughes be rationalizing about the fact that Plath ended her life within months of his leaving her? Salon

“If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you are undeniably a left wing wacko, completely out of touch with mainstream thought in this country. The rest of you are normal Americans. Congratulations. And God help us all.” Salon

“George W. Bush Isn’t Stupid…” “To call Bush stupid is to imply that his harsh conservative policy initiatives are being carried out in ignorance. Whereas in truth, Bush is an ideologue. He knows exactly what he is doing.

To call Bush stupid is to engender sympathy for a man whose policies threaten the safety, the prosperity, and the future of the United States of America. The man doesn’t need our sympathy, he needs our opposition.

To call Bush stupid is to create in Bush a Forrest Gump presidency. Many Americans loved Forrest Gump the movie and they loved its false saccharine message that it didn’t matter how smart or stupid one was as long as one had a good heart. Bush is no Forrest Gump.” Liberal Arts Mafia Juicy Bits

Ten People Who Decide What America Reads: a rogue’s gallery? Book [via wood s lot]

Thanks to Higgy for this blink: Overdue book’s return priceless; we’ re talking here about an 1859 first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species borrowed from the Boston Public Library at least 80 years ago. The woman who returned it had found in her great-aunt’s attic. On examination, the book bore signs of efforts to erase evidence of its ownership by the Library. But, as the BPL’s rare books curator lovingly put it, “Paper has such a long memory. It doesn’t forget.” The maximum late fee for overdue books, as of a campaign last year to encourage their return, is $1.25. Boston Mayor Menino offered to waive the fee in this instance. Boston Globe

An Unrepentant Nader Unveils a New Grass-Roots Project Some of the placards outside read: “Right-wing freaks coalition for Nader.” “Back-alley abortionists for Nader.” “Defense contractors for Nader.” “Citizens against tundra.” “Unelectable at any speed.” New York Times

Boston Globe editorial: Bad choice for Peace Corps. Another contemptible Shrub appointment.

Darkest Hour May Be Just Before the Dawn: I.R.A. Agrees to Arms Pact in Move Hailed as Significant. ‘The Irish Republican Army has agreed to a method of destroying its arsenal of weapons that is provable and permanent, the commission responsible for the disarming of paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland said today.

Britain and Ireland termed the statement “significant” and “historic” and said it represented the long-sought breakthrough needed to push forward with the stalled peace accord for the embattled province.’ New York Times

In the Airport Fast Lane, With Your Eyes as a Passport Trial of iris-scanning technology may allow some arriving Heathrow passengers to bypass passport control as soon as this fall. New York Times

He shoulda just let it go and ordered a replacement from FmH…

Japanese Woman Has Baby at 60: “A 60-year-old Japanese woman became the nation’s oldest new mother last month when she gave birth to a healthy baby after undergoing in-vitro fertilization in the United States.” Washington Post

New Look Gore Back From Exile. “You disappear for months, avoiding more cameras than Gary Condit.

And you resurface with a scruffy beard?

No wonder some Democrats don’t want the guy to run again.” Washington Post

Braddock Gaskill: How to anonymously get root access on a quarter million machines overnight: “This analysis describes a means through which a complete list of the estimated 250,000 CodeRed II infected and backdoor compromised hosts can be easily obtained by any individual who has been keeping a web server log of attempts on his machine, by using the backdoors on the machines that have attacked him to obtain the the web logs of the infected attacking IIS web servers to learn of new infected hosts.”

How to Tell a Bad Movie From a Truly Bad Movie: “Bad films wear their ingredients the way soup labels do. To be really bad, a film should be pretentious and sententious. It should seek to change your life. (Anti- genius is 1 percent perspiration and 99 percent aspiration.) It should be, above all, humorless.” A Warner Bros. executive who wishes to remain nameless adds:

Locate the exit nearest you, she says, before screening any film directed by big-name male actors or Brian De Palma, any film that features Robin Williams in a beard, any film scored by John Williams, any film starring Juliette Binoche or Kevin Costner, any film that features Robin Williams clean-shaven, any film directed by a woman and proud of it, any film that features Robin Williams in a yarmulke and any film positively reviewed by anyone associated with National Public Radio.

New York Times

President is taking the month off Some worry about impact on his image. Only on the job six months and he already gets a month off? A month?? Of course, some would say, he’s not really ‘off’; he’ll be briefed daily on what those really in charge are doing in his absence. A Presidential spokesperson says he’ll be making some brief outings “to celebrate some of the values that strengthen America,” making him sound more like a ceremonial chief of state than he is. USA Today and Washington Post While we’re on the issue of executive branch compensations, the White House staff is not a bad palce to work. However, it doesn’t match what an ex-President can make by just signing his name to a piece of paper and hiring a ghostwriter. More Washington Post

It’s OK to get angry. “Prank callers call someone up to bother them. But these people are calling me because they don’t know to dial a ‘1’ before they call outside of their own area code. These people are harassing me with their stupidity.” Profile of New York comedian Matt Besser, who “has built his show aound the idea of irrational anger in our society.” Several years ago, he began getting middle-of-the-night phone calls from people seeking customer support for software they’d been given for free Internet connections. He figured out they were all Manhattanites who had failed to dial a ‘1’ before the area code for the tech support line in Houston and refused to believe him when he told them they had gotten a wrong number. The Internet company refused to insert the ‘1’ in their printed material. “So Besser did what any self-respecting comedian would do: He began fucking with people” … and recording the results. Salon

It’s OK to get angry. “Prank callers call someone up to bother them. But these people are calling me because they don’t know to dial a ‘1’ before they call outside of their own area code. These people are harassing me with their stupidity.” Profile of New York comedian Matt Besser, who “has built his show aound the idea of irrational anger in our society.” Several years ago, he began getting middle-of-the-night phone calls from people seeking customer support for software they’d been given for free Internet connections. He figured out they were all Manhattanites who had failed to dial a ‘1’ before the area code for the tech support line in Houston and refused to believe him when he told them they had gotten a wrong number. The Internet company refused to insert the ‘1’ in their printed material. “So Besser did what any self-respecting comedian would do: He began fucking with people” … and recording the results. Salon

It’s OK to get angry. “Prank callers call someone up to bother them. But these people are calling me because they don’t know to dial a ‘1’ before they call outside of their own area code. These people are harassing me with their stupidity.” Profile of New York comedian Matt Besser, who “has built his show aound the idea of irrational anger in our society.” Several years ago, he began getting middle-of-the-night phone calls from people seeking customer support for software they’d been given for free Internet connections. He figured out they were all Manhattanites who had failed to dial a ‘1’ before the area code for the tech support line in Houston and refused to believe him when he told them they had gotten a wrong number. The Internet company refused to insert the ‘1’ in their printed material. “So Besser did what any self-respecting comedian would do: He began fucking with people” … and recording the results. Salon