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March 5, 2006

Art Buchwald goes out his way; 19 new indie games

The Final Days of Art Buchwald: The legendary humor columnist has rejected dialysis and is eating all the junk food he wants, entertaining Kennedys and waiting to die in a Washington hospice. Turns out, his kidney function is better than doctors thought, and his final days have stretched out to six weeks now, despite a bump when vascular problems led to an amputation of his right leg below the knee.

Buchwald was to join a long line of great writers who have earned the group's Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' annual convention in Boston in June, but he's unlikely to make it so it was delivered early by current president Suzette Martinez Standring of the Milton (Mass.) Times, who writes a lovely report at Editor & Publisher (link on the headline) and at NSNC about visiting him for two days.

I'm slated to be on a blogging panel at that convention, and when I was first invited I told colleagues I was excited by the opportunity to meet Buchwald. Alas.

This blog received an award from NSNC in 2004, and I accepted it at the convention in New Orleans that year -- my first time in that city, and I'm grateful to have seen it before Katrina gutted it. Because I'm shy in crowds and schmooze badly, I covered it to give myself something to do. Here's that story, back in my handmade html blog: Writing, Rhythm & all that Jazz, June 10-13, New Orleans.

Update: The leading link of the item above went behind a pay wall at Editor & Publisher. I've changed the link to another site where it's still alive, under a different headline. As of this date, May 24, 2006, Buchwald is still alive and thinking of moving to Martha's Vineyard.

Related: Headline links to
Buchwald's columns at WaPo;

19 games to play and rate: The 2006 Independent Games Festival finalists are up, and you're invited to try them and vote for your favorites.

This list leads to their homepages, this one to downloadable demos at GameSpot (free reg. req.)

My favorite so far: Dodge that Anvil, above, a platformer with great 3D action as you help a rabbit pull carrots from a field while anvils and exploding balls rain from above. (Online link -- tends to crash -- and downloadable demo.) Here's an interview with the game's creator, Jake Grandchamp, at Gamasutra, which is profiling the finalists's creators.

IGF is compiling links to these and other interviews at GameDev.net.

Someday I'll write a serious analysis of games as meditation and stress relief, but for now I just play 'em. The family 8-year-old and I like the same games.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 2:40 PM | Permalink