Jack Kerouac predicts the Super Bowl

Saw this courtesy of Dave Moore on the Facebook Jack Kerouac group. It's a pretty clever set of Super Bowl predictions as if written by famous authors Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver, Ayn Rand, Jane Austen, James Joyce, and our hero: Jack Kerouac.

One thing is certain: Kerouac knew a little something about football.

"One deathless line"

Last night I read in Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters Volume 1: 1940-1956, edited by Ann Charters, that he told his friend Sebastian Sampas of a goal to write "at least one deathless line."

I think he achieved that goal (multiple times, actually). If you agree, what would be the example you'd give to make your case?

First day of teaching Kerouac

Today is the first day of classes for the spring semester at the University of Maine at Farmington. One of the four courses I am teaching this semester is a First Year Seminar. The topic? Jack Kerouac! We'll be reading On the Road and The Dharma Bums and related Kerouac or Beat Generation works and discussing their relevance today but, mostly, I hope we can just "dig the ride." One difference from last spring is that we not only have the film version of On the Road accessible, but we also have Big Sur and, hopefully, Kill Your Darlings (I saw a DVD release date of March) to choose from.

As interesting things happen across the semester, I'll post about them here on The Daily Beat, so stay tuned . . . .

New look for The Daily Beat

I was just surfing around the 'Net via Facebook and came across this blog (about a favorite pet peeve of mine: unexplainable popularity for bigoted knuckleheads). I thought it had a simple, clean look and discerned that it is a template on Blogger, the same platform I use for The Daily Beat. A couple of clicks later and my blog has a new look.

Let me know what you think.