Novelist Nicholson Baker's new non-fiction tome, Human Smoke, details World War II through a series of wispy, "Gawker-like vignettes" of 100 to 200 words each. The New Republic's Anne Applebaum thinks that approach is crap.

Intern Mary started a blog! It's brilliant, it's simple: roommate stories! It's called We Share a Toilet and she's seeking submissions. Also, probably, an agent. [We Share a Toilet]

The girl behind the Guest of a Guest nightlife blog interviewed and unveiled: her name is Rachelle Hruska, and she's sorta the platonic protege of longtime nightlife fixture Steve Lewis—she met him her very first day in NYC and calls him Uncle Steve. She's from Omaha! [Goodnight Mr. Lewis]

Give Me a Book Deal [Tumblr, Related, Related]

Buzz Bissinger, the excellent sportswriter and blog hater who made himself a very unpopular man very quickly by becoming unhinged and cussing out nice-guy Deadspin editor Will Leitch on TV last week, has had some time to think about what he did. And he's sorry now. First his wife told him he looked bad. Then everybody else did. "I started reading emails sent to me. The majority were predictably vindictive — dickhead, horsefucker, douchebag, windbag, ugly, stupid, etc. But what struck me far more is that many of the emails were smart, not laced with personal invective, and made cogent points about sports blogs and the Internet." He has perhaps now learned a valuable lesson, or three!

The May W features an Arianna Huffington interview in which she reveals how influential and important she is. She lunched with David Geffen and Ari Emanuel calls her every day! Also she's all over the TV pimping her new book, which is about how much she dislikes Tim Russert. And she's single! This might be a good time to hook up with her, if you can make it stick: she's got about a six-month window to unload HuffPo for a very large amount of money. Traffic is huge at the moment, but will the new lifestyle content make up for the post-election downturn? Probably not! And as our good friend Nick Denton once blaaaahhgged, advertisers are terrified of political content. Even when it's by Alec Baldwin and Nora Ephron! [W via LAObserved]

Yesterday, Kanye West got all screechy and babyish about a luke warm Entertainment Weekly review. Today, he has blogger's remorse. He says on his website, "Unfortunately for certain media outlets, you will never be able 2 'Michael Jackson' me. That means 2 make it seem like everything I do is so weird or out of place... they always try 2 make it seem like everything is about my ego! That joke is getting old."

"I never want to be an expert in the field of blogs. That would be way too pathetic," says Buzz Bissinger, bug-eyed ranting madman and nemesis of Deadspin and all of its sickening brethren. Interesting take Mr. Bissinger, thank you for sharing that explanation with us. [Fanhouse]

One of the things I never figured out about the internet is why certain sites have commenters, who those commenters are, and what compels them to do what they do. It's one thing to spend your time commenting on a site that has witty, engaging repartee, like this one. But some other places are inexplicable. Like one that came to my attention today: DailyPuppy.com. It exists to post puppy pictures. Okay, fine, I have nothing negative to say about that, dog Nazis. But do said puppy pictures require 90 comments just today, which all sound like this actual example: "Oh baby you are such a cutie-pie. A zillion biscuits and cuddles poppet and have a wonderful life. xxxxxxxxxxx." GOD. It really challenges your ability to even continue liking puppies. Below are some more of the deep thoughts on Chloe the Labrador Retriever, today's puppy (pictured). This dog can't read, you fools!

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Newsweek is considering a move from Midtown to SoHo. It would join media outlets already in place that range from high-end names like New York Magazine to many of the country's most popular blogs and other online operations. Is the SoHo area NYC's new media district? Rents are cheaper than Midtown, and it's an easier commute for the critical mass of Brooklyn-based writers. Plus, it's just cooler. Take a look for yourself: more than a dozen of the eclectic downtown media neighbors, mapped above.

• Things You Can't Do Coked Up—Guessing there's no book deal forthcoming. Prove me wrong, publishers!
  

Atlantic contributor Jeffrey Goldberg started his very first blog this week, with a charmingly naive post mostly about how he knows nothing about blogging but does sit near uber-blogger Andrew Sullivan. "This is almost certainly a mistake," he begins, and it turns out he's 100% right. When the New York Observer's media blogger Matt Haber (the forgotten Gawker Alum!) devoted a post yesterday to basically announcing the existence of Goldberg's blog and needling Goldberg for his initial boneheaded support of the Iraq War, Goldberg blew up with rage. Haber's post was a mugging, he says. Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey. We'll show you what a mugging is.

It's like "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," except with the Internet and likable schlubs you've never heard of. Actually, it does look kind of good. Like cable-good. Like Supersize Me without wanting to punch the narrator in his smug stupid face. Come see the preview!

AOL's attempt at recreating itself as an "an ad-supported Web company" (or blog network, basically!) baffle and enrage us but they are apparently having some mild success. According to the Journal, traffic is up at AOL's new blogs many of which don't advertise their AOL connection: "It also created a half-dozen new sites that don't use the AOL name, such as a technology-focused site called Switched, a hip-hop site called BlackVoices, and a Web trend tracker called Urlesque.com, as well as Asylum." We bolded that bit because BlackVoices doesn't actually have anything to do with hip hop, except in that some black people rap and stuff. But, you know, not Sean Bell or Michelle Obama, the subjects of two of the current lead stories on that "hip-hop site." [WSJ, BlackVoices]

Guys, we can pack it in. AOL finally finished work on their advanced blogging android, programmed to churn out and rehash Funny Internet Content in unlimited combinations. They've given their Blogbot a site called "Urlesque" and now it will set about destroying Best Week Ever, Buzzfeed, Rex Sorgatz, Gawker, Tumblr, Funny or Die, The Superficial, Stuff White People Like, Cracked, and people who forward funny things—by becoming them. It's all automated now! There's a machine in Estonia that churns out LOLcats and most "people" on Vimeo are animatronic. Jason Kottke is actually three lines of code. Activate Muxtape-creation sequence! Unleash the Diggbait List algorithm! Taze humanity, bro! YAHH TRICK YAHH! [Urlesque]

"We love our cats… and they seem to love walking across our keyboards! You can't blame them, they just want to be near us. With the Kit-In Box, cats have a place to rest that's out of the way, but still an arm length's away from a scratch on the belly. The Kit-In Box can attach to the side of a desk or be placed on top it. Felt pads protect the desk top. Cats are drawn to the soft cushion and the high walls, which are perfect for nesting. The Kit-In Box can support a 20 lbs cat and even small dogs!" [Ephemerist] Bigger pic after the jump.

An adorable little blonde person ventured out to the East New York home of former Gawker advice columnist Tionna Smalls to ask her what she thinks about Internet fame. "It's all a lot of fun of games in the beginning." But. "If people think you're getting more burns off their site than they are, they'll get rid of you. It's jealousy."

The New York Post killed poor PageSix.com after something like ten internet minutes, but now we just discovered this weird new blog they have (we know it's new because it has a big NEW BLOG sticker on it) called, uh, POPWRAP. The internet is running out of names for things that are obvious clones of five other things! Anyway, if PageSix.com was their TMZ-killer, this is their scaled-back Gawker/Daily Intelligencer/maybe-Best Week Ever-copier. The whole damn thing is edited solely by one guy (like us, back in the golden era!)—former InTouch "lifestyle editor" Jarett Wieselman (ten posts today, Jarett—you can get it up to 12 by Monday!). Oh, wait, we remember that name! Wieselman was brought over from InTouch with Kathy Campbell to run PageSix.com. And then that imploded and now they've given him this. Anyway we didn't read very many of the "words" but the pictures look pretty and the headlines are suitably sarcastic-ish. Also there is a caption contest feature because bloggers are for some reason never happy with the captions photos come with. (So far: one comment on this one. Go help 'em out!) Now you have one more source for mildly irreverent takes on celebrity news. [POPWRAP]

Richard's off today, so to cover all the important celebrity gossip we might bring in this guy, whose celebrity blog is apparently machine-translated from Italian. It is the best gossip blog in the world. Breaking: "Wide-brimmed hat Anderson and Lauren Conrad is between the invited celebrities to assist to the lunch of association of the correspondents of pressa of the White House the 26 opens them." Also: "L' last egg whites of Kylie Minogue flopped in the tables of the United States." Oh man, one more: "The Jr. Of Downey it has fought public the drug addiction during their relationship of seven years, before that the braces cracked in 1991." Still more coherent than TMZ! [TaylorMayde]

Here is an honorific that we should have been keeping track of more closely: Huffington Post's monthly "Woman of Style." This award is bestowed by HuffPo blogger and author Lesley M.M. Blume, who, according to her bio, "has devoted herself to the study of irreverence, chic eccentricity, and extravagant personas." A worthwhile and rigorous pursuit! Though Blume is—we have to be honest here—a somewhat more over-the-top writer than her skill level and a sense of prudence would dictate. This month's Woman of Style is Faith-Ann Young, "A free-wheeling music reporter and photographer for Monocle, Flavorpill, MOG, and Blender," whose style "at once evokes a 1960s and 70s free spirit — and also the anarchism of the internet generation." Do tell!