Although I marked Sinatra's death in my usual hilarious way -- posing in Suck the sarcastic question, What if Frank Sinatra had lived? -- I actually agreed with Vowell, as I do now with Fusilli (must resist...), that too many people simply don't understand Sinatra, as the inevitable repetition tomorrow of My Way, Strangers in the Night, and (ugh) New York, New York will illustrate.

So for what it's worth, here's my tribute playlist. Not necessarily his best or my favorites, but a good selection of what's available through SeeqPod. Take a few minutes out of your busy day to remember, won't you?

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Bonus: Frank and Bing in High Society...

And from the best Sinatra film (as far as musical performances go): The Lady is a Tramp.

In case you haven't been keeping up with the Rapture Ready! news page or Facebook group, here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

Reviews in Publisher's Weekly, SoMA Review and Discerning Reader (a conservative Christian site, so this is as close to a rave as I could possibly get).

Interviews in The Forward and Metromix.

A thoughtful discussion and analysis in Slate (that, for what it's worth, I don't entirely agree with).

Also, there are now six excerpts available online at various sites, with more to come. Pretty soon the entire thing will be free on the Internet, just like music.

Perhaps due to all this buzz, my Amazon rank briefly rose to about 850 and has now settled down to 3,000-something.

What can you do to help continue this saturation coverage, I hear you ask? Well, if you have a blog, drop a mention in whatever manner suits you best. If you want to enlist me in any such enterprise for a Q&A or guest post or whatever, let me know. If you don't have a blog, get one. Or Twitter it. I have no idea what Twitter is, but I hear it's quite fashionable.

Also, if you read the book, please take two minutes and write a review on Amazon. If you haven't read it, check out the reviews that are already there and let them know which ones were "helpful to you" (hint, the five-star ones). You can do that in less time than it took you to read this post.

You did read this far, right?

Hello? Is anybody there? There was going to be cake.

Update Thanks a million to The Millions for taking me up on the Q&A offer. Also, the buzz continues at The Onion AV Club. RR! is... tolerable!

Better still, John McCain is put in the position of affirming, loudly and clearly, that, yes, he voted for the asshole with the highest disapproval rating in history. And we should vote for you why?

Meanwhile, McCain's camp is accusing Obama of playing the age card (again) with his "lost bearings" line. Nonsense! He's playing the crazy card. Whatcha gonna do about it, Walnuts?

But just a couple of things off the top of my head. According to the first graf, marijuana "can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts."

The supposed evidence:

"A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed."

And

"Teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers"

Ergo, smoking marijuana leads to suicidal thoughts! Or, perhaps, depression does. No, that can't be it. Really, one little data point could answer this question: are depressed teens who smoke more likely to consider suicide than depressed teens who don't? Guess they didn't have room in the budget for that question.

I'd also be curious as to whether the suicidal thoughts increase or decrease immediately after smoking. I mean, if depressed kids are becoming "dependent" on marijuana, might it be because marijuana helps them feel better?

Even taking the study at face value, which is never wise with a government study on drugs, the logic makes no sense. "Gee, depressed people take Prozac. Sometimes a lot. And sometimes they think about suicide. We'd better ban Prozac!"

Oh, and by the way, is there any chance these kids also drink alcohol?

What, no love for The Week?

"Hi, Soccer Moms and Dads, here's me at the premier of a movie defending a fugitive child rapist!"

Oh, don't give me any nuance. If a missing flag pin can become a campaign issue, this picture definitely will.

Of course, the fact that these are the top picks of nearly half of all Salon readers means it probably won't happen.

[h/t simsburybear]

Winner
"Me like picture of jewish man! Me put it up on wall!" — Jimby

Finalists
"Gloria, we just have to put the past behind us. We were too young to be parents; we were only kids! We can't let an abortion prey on us like this." — kejo

"And the best part is, her stupid, monster boyfriend has no idea!" —Charles

"No, I don't know why Willem Dafoe is scaling my building. No, I don't think it's a movie shoot -- he's not wearing any make-up." —J.D.

"Hello, Feed the Children? Hey, I need some more - he's still hungry." —therblig

PROGRAM YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND TO STOP HOMOPHOBIC TENDENCIES! ALLOW YOURSELF TO ACCEPT PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF THEIR SEXUAL PREFERENCE! RELEASE YOURSELF FROM UNWANTED FEAR OF HOMOSEXUALS & HOMOSEXUALITY! LEARN TO HATE CHRISTIAN SIRIANO FOR THE RIGHT REASONS!

OK, I added that last one.

CG kiddie porn is The Next Big Thing. Or possibly robots. Does Vanity Fair know about this?

Why not Bil Keane! By which I mean, Why not, Bil Keane, try some of this LSD? It might do wonders for your creative process.

If you're thinking of blogging about anything Jeffrey Goldberg writes, pick up the phone and call him first. He's got the time. There are only, what, a couple dozen people with blogs out there? Note: I tried to call Goldberg to before posting this, but got his voice mail. Should I have left a message? How long should I have waited for a callback? This Internet blogging thing moves fast, like some kind of superhighway.

Talk about threats to the franchise, however, is a bit far-fetched. While soccer moms may be upset, they're pretty obviously going to take out their anger on Vanity Fair. Miley has worked hard in the past year to build her reputation as a good Christian girl. Now, the Christian pop industry has no problem kicking one of their own to the curb if she steps outside the bounds of propriety, as even Amy Grant has discovered time and again, but when it comes to precious kids, the secret desire to see a celebrity fall, which is how the mainstream fan psychology works, will easily be trumped by paranoia about the Christian-hating media. Especially with Miley issuing a "what, me naked?" statement, talk among her "safe for the whole family" fan base is pretty quickly going to turn toward denunciations not of Miley or Disney but the godless liberal media and, subtext, the Jewish lesbian photographer.

Miley will come out of this unscathed and people will call for boycotts of Vanity Fair by people who never bought Vanity Fair in the first place.

By the way, longtime readers of this site may be surprised to know that my own feelings about Miley/Hannah are pretty eh. I love the concept of the Hannah Montana show but I find the young lady's music bland and disappointing. With the single exception of See You Again, which is one of the best pop songs of the past year, and bodes well for her future.

Update. Cheap irony alert: The Wall Street Journal runs its wither Miley handwringer with a photo from the CMT music awards that, unlike the VF pictures, shows actual cleavage. And quite a lot of it.

Winner
"Cod... sea bass... flounder... orange roughy... sex with my mother -- I mean, Arctic char..." —kejo

Finalists
"...and as a fireman, I'm totally perplexed. Shouldn't I be haunted by images of charred, coughing infants? What I wouldn't give some days to be haunted by images of charred, coughing infants! But no. Fish. Weird." — J

"What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh. What do you call a psychiatrist with no eyes. You!" [lunges at psychiatrist] —Mo Buck

(No one is talking. They are drowned and dead. Dead people don't talk nor do people underwater.) —Jimby

"You're right Bob, these psychiatrist's office tank ornaments are way better than that stupid treasure chest that just opened and closed, and opened and closed, with bubbles." —Adam G

"The telekinesis began when I was little. Only recently did I start using my powers to control fish." —Harry

“That is one big fucking screensaver you got here, doc!” —dwilk

"Arrr...I've smoked too much California weed." —Anonymous

"And how does that make you [i]eel[/i]?" —Jangler