Friday Odds & Sods is Burnt To a Crisp

Apologies for the missing post last week, ever-faithful friends. This time, however, I have a much better excuse than writer's block, for last week found me slowly melting into a puddle under the heat of the late July Sun. Of course, such experience, despite it is obvious discomforts, can be a boon, if only for the occasion it lends around four in the morning for the mind to concentrate on questions of great import. To wit: "Who am I?", "What am I doing with my life?", "Why did I not take the opportunity to get an air conditioner when I had a chance?" Alas, dearest friends, I cannot say that I found any answers to these queries during my long, hot, sleepless nights. But I do know that these many more questions of great moment can be found in this week's Odds & Sods.

• I believe I have had occasion previously to remark on my admiration for Joseph Mitchell, like myself a Tar Hell gone to make good in the Metropolis. A talented writer and never one to let the facts get in the way of the truth, I must admit Mitchell is a bit o a hero of mine. I therefore highly recommend this profile of Joe Gould, alias Professor Seagull, the subject of Mitchell's most famous story. 
• Continuing on with the subject of eccentrics, fakers, and frauds, two stories about climbing to the heights on the basis of not very much at all: The illusionist who charmed LA's elite for a pretty penny and how pundits continuously fail upwards.
• A final mystery for the post: Who killed one of the most famous philosophers of the Renaissance?