The Oxford English Dictionary's first prefaces go online; this LanguageHat post is itself an able introduction.

• The Literary Saloon applauds the public relations behind the can-women-write-about-sex kerfuffle, with only a hint of sarcasm.

• Airing your own dirty laundry in public is one thing; but what about somebody else's?

• The New Yorker displays Edith Wharton's rather beautiful handwriting.

• Paradoxes of new media advertising: if your online literary magazine publishes a piece mocking the promotion of tooth-whitening products through imitation blogs, Google will furnish it with a scary tooth-whitening advert – on behalf of a site called JennifersFirstBlog.com. I imagine more people than usual click through, if only for reasons of curiosity. (And no, I don't want to know what the ads by this blogpost are now saying.)