ouch • Amazon has started a program with publishers that allows out-of-print titles and lower-volume books to be printed and shipped on demand when consumers place orders. Another stake to the heart of booksellers, via our backs.

obit worth reading • Peter Viereck at 89, Poet and Conservative Theorist. NYT obit, Boston Globe.

audio • NPR’s On Point gives us an hour long discussion among experts about whether Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code will bring the entire Catholic Church crashing to its knees.

more audio • This is one of those ‘driveway’ pieces, that keep you sitting in your car. A family has handed down a 96 year old graduation gown which has been used in 26 different ceremonies. I found the rituals of the gown’s care and familytradition heartbreaking . . . my family is lucky to pass down a ratty bathtowel.

new history • A former Yale University professor has written a book claiming Chinese explorers set foot on Cape Breton Island long before European explorer John Cabot.

dead horses • A copy of the The Da Vinci Code which Tom Hanks had while filming the movie has gone on eBay to raise money for cancer research.