Neil Steinberg's essay on the Spelling Bee
(reprinted in Complete and Utter Failure and elsewhere) was
the inspiration for one of the worst pieces of dreck
foisted upon the book-reading public, Mya Goldberg's "Bee
Season" of last year. She cribs all of Steinbergs best
images, then pads them out with a badly, BADLY
constructed story. She also managed to re-regurgitate them in
a shameless salon.com piece. Avoid at all
costs.
Get any of Steinberg's books you can: the college
prank history "If At All Possible Involve a Cow," the
above-mentioned "Failure," and the beautifully cranky "Alphabet
of Modern Annoyances."
-Myron