branta

While the panelists were on their best behaviour today, this morning Q&Q received a press release from Gabriel Fritzen, a German-Canadian who is demanding an apology from panelist Anne-France Goldwater and the CBC for “libelling survivors of Iran’s holocaust,” after Goldwater suggested on Monday’s show that Marina Nemat’s memoir, The Prisoner of Tehran, was not a truthful account of her experiences in an Iranian prison.
Sue Carter Flinn / Quill & Quire

“There is some kind of philosophical, social or political aspect to it, but it’s not like being preached at - I hope not, anyway. It’s for each person to come away with it with their own reactions intact. It’s not missionary work in that sense. I’m not seeking to convert people.”
-interview by Mike Landry/Telegraph Journal

“We’ve invited her since the beginning of the festival, but to no avail,” Arnold said in an interview at the festival kickoff news conference. “Last January, I was at the airport in Toronto going through customs. I was with a friend who looked back and saw Margaret Atwood. I started shaking and hyperventilating, grabbed a business card out of my wallet, went up to her, told her I was a huge fan and invited her to come.
Alan Cochrane/Times Transcript

The 74-year-old Peruvian-born author thought it was a joke when he received a pre-dawn phone call in New York, where he is teaching a semester at Princeton University, with news that he had beaten hotly tipped writers from the US, Africa and Europe.
Rory Carroll/The Guardian UK

I’m getting ready to hit the road for promotion and publicity. This means a couple of weeks of interviews, airports, and book launches. It’s a chance to meet up with old friends, and connect with many of the people who voted in the poll to choose the Top 100 Singles

Cohen will take to the stage tonight for his second of two concerts at the house, following a ‘homecoming’ concert by Westlife which took place on Friday night. ‘‘When John spoke to us, we were closed and were not considering anything like this, but when it was Leonard Cohen, who is such a Yeats fan and such a great poet himself, it would have been dreadful to say no,” said Isobel Cassidy, manager of Lissadell Estate and sister of Constance.
Sunday Business Post (Ireland)

Sometime during the middle part of June the Netfirms e-mail account I had been using for Branta business first swallowed all but a handful of letters then followed that trick up by kicking me out completely. So I apologize if you sent in queries or submissions or anything over that last couple of months, but that stuff appears to be in the world wide dead letter office of the web.

Regis and Kelly wrap up PEI broadcasts with thanks for Canadian hospitality. Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa wrapped up nearly a week of shows from Prince Edward Island with a beach bash and many thanks for all the Canadian hospitality. The hosts of “Live! with Regis and Kelly” began their final episode with a salute from two CF-18 fighter planes, which circled the cheering crowd.
The Globe and Mail