Some nourishment for the brain, belly and soul

Nothing particular to get off my chest this week, just a roundup of some good work on the Web pertaining to some of the major literary figures of our time, among other items:

-- 20 years after the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, are writers in Britain still feeling the chill -- and the fear -- of radical Muslim protests? Hanif Kureishi is an exception to the self-censorship.

-- James Baldwin, in all his complications, is examined in The New Yorker by Claudia Pierpoint Roth, with the focus on his expatriate life, and the conflicting parallels he shared with another African-American writer in Europe, Richard Wright. There are so many excerpts to point out, but one that strikes me is the distraction some artists cannot deflect when it comes to political involvement. For Baldwin, the civil rights movement in the 1960s simply could not be passed up, though it came with a tremendous price:

"Baldwin’s biographer and close friend David Leeming suggested to Baldwin, in the mid-sixties, that 'the anarchic aspect' of his daily existence was interfering with his work. But the most widely credited accusation is that his political commitments had deprived him of the necessary concentration, and cost him his creative life."

-- I've never been to Montreal, but this very hip guide to Canada's most European precinct -- and the second largest Francophone locale behind Paris -- makes me pine to get there soon. Maybe in the spring?

-- Once upon a time, William Faulkner and Don DeLillo both wrote for Sports Illustrated. Now the troubled Time Warner property -- like so many in the media industry -- is craven for other star attractions. And not just for the obvious reasons. Apparently the annual swimsuit issue, which will soon go on sale, accounts for 11 percent of the magazine's revenues. In this economy, the Sisterhood's complaints will be fainter than ever. Those "Goddesses of the Mediterranean" have never been more welcome.

-- Even though it's never been cheap and is no great affordable shakes after its economic collapse, Iceland and its fish-centered cuisine are a lot more enticing now to North American and European tourist wallets.

-- The famous jazz record label Blue Note is trying to figure out what's next as it turns 70.