Andy's Resume

Andrew B. Cohen

201-993-3342
thatandycohen@gmail.com

www.andrewcohen.info

MY SUPER-AWESOME WIDE-RANGING MEDIA EXPERIENCE

• Creator and co-host of the much-beloved weekly call-in radio show “Shut Up, Weirdo” (shutupweirdo.com) on WFMU. (2008-present).
• Associate Editor, Newsweek Magazine. Edited copy for domestic, international, and Web versions of the much-beleaguered magazine. Worked with writers, top editors, production, and photo staff to publish stories on a timely basis. Other varied duties included fact-checking, research, some writing and reporting, and supervising and training interns and temp editors (2000-present).
• Staff copy editor, Martha Stewart Living Magazine (1997-2000).
• Web editor, Audible.com. Created strategy for design and content of pre-launch prototype site (1997).
• Freelance consulting editor for Crossover Technologies, an Internet games developer, creating news-based content for President ‘96 and Reinventing America, two online political-simulation games (1996-97).
• Copy editor, The Moscow Times, an English-language daily in Russia’s capital (1995).

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

• Full-time freelance copy editor at Los Angeles Magazine (1992-94).
• Freelance editor-in-chief of Infiniti Perspectives, a general-interest magazine for Infiniti owners created by the car company’s L.A.-based ad agency, Hill, Holliday (1991-92).
• News assistant at The Wall Street Journal, New York bureau. Wrote numerous news and feature stories, one of which appeared in the best-of anthology listed below (1988-90).
• Editorial assistant at The Columbia University Record, a weekly newspaper for the school’s faculty and staff (1984-87), and at Columbia Magazine, the alumni monthly (1987-88).

OTHER STUFF I’VE DONE, USUALLY FOR LITTLE OR NO MONEY

• I currently blog at thatandycohen.com and bellcurved.com (a site about higher ed). Samples of my published work from Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and elsewhere are online at andrewcohen.info.
• Consulting freelance editor for launch of Newsweek Pakistan (2010).
• As a stand-up comedian, I performed at Comix, Babyhole, and Stand-Up NY (2009).
• Member of the board of trustees of the Elysian Charter School, a public institution in Hoboken, N.J. (2003-05).
• Taught a weekly after-school Money Club (business and economics) for middle-school students at Elysian Charter (2002-03).
• I wrote several entries for “The People’s Almanac Presents the Twentieth Century: The Definitive Compendium of Astonishing Events, Amazing People, and Strange But-True Facts” (Little Brown, 1995).
• My WSJ feature on educational films appears in the anthology “Dressing for Dinner in the Naked City and Other Stories from the Wall Street Journal’s Middle Column” (Hyperion, 1994).
• I co-authored, with Beth Heinsohn, “Know Your Government: The Department of Defense” (Chelsea House, 1990), a book for school-age readers.

EDUCATION

• Columbia University. B.A., 1988. Major in history, minor in political science.

Shutupweirdo.com, 2009: First Fan Fiction

The New Intern By Anonymous

[Names deleted to protect the awesome]

Gary Stew had long looked forward to the opportunity to intern on the famous call-in show “Shut Up, Weirdo” at the world famous radio station WFMU in glittering Jersey City. Gary parked his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R outside the steel and glass tower that housed the internationally famous and awesome radio station, and confidently strode inside, casually brushing away his alluring black hair from his forehead.

As a student at the prestigious University of Manhattan, Harvard’s main rival in prestigiousness, he had the high honor of being able to intern for Andy and Frangry because of his brilliant work and high recommendation from Professor Sarnoff, the dean of the Department of Radio Studies. His handsome good looks and the fact that he was universally liked by everyone in New York helped too.

“Hi, I’m here to start my internship with Andy and Frangry,” he smiled to the receptionist in the gleaming ultramodern lobby of WFMU.

“Oh!” beamed the lovely receptionist, who resembled Kate Moss. “You are so lucky to be able to work with Andy and Frangry. And I’m sure you’ll be great at it!” she beamed again. “Just go on up to the ‘Shut Up, Weirdo’ studio complex — it’s on the 88th floor,” she beamed a third time. “Here, let me hang up your totally awesome leather jacket.”

Then she turned to the next visitor and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Lou Reed, you can’t come in. Please go away. You’re not cool enough to visit here anymore.”

Upon arriving on the 88th floor, Gary was taken aback by the bustle of activity. “Coming through!” shouted a worker. “I need to get this rack of high-fashion outfits to Miss Frangry‘s dressing room right away!” he bustled. “Delivery for Mr. Andy!” shouted another deliveryman. “Where should I put this crate of extremely highbrow Russian books?” he questioned.

A pretty woman with glasses and a clipboard rushed up to Gary. “You must be Gary Stew. I can tell because you are the handsomest man I have ever seen,” she cuddled. “My name is Sherry. I’m Nick the Bard’s executive assistant. I’m also a Ph.D. and beauty-pageant winner, which will be apparent when I remove my eyeglasses and let down my hair. Please walk this way.

She brought him to large high-ceilinged corner office with famous art-museum paintings and a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline. “Please wait here. Andy & Frangry are excited to meet you. Would you like some caviar or premium-brand vodka?” A moment later, Andy and Frangry entered and sat on their twin velvet thrones.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to intern with us. We know you had your pick of prestigious radio shows to work on, and we’re so glad you picked ours. You are the most in-demand intern in the whole world. We are so excited to have you with us,” said Andy, who was wearing his customary office tuxedo.

“Yes,” added Frangry. “We are so excited you decided to join Team Weirdo. Can I get you more of this expensive caviar?” She was wearing a beautiful famous-fashion-designer gown and looked beautiful.

“No caviar for me. I just wasn’t to do a good job and help out with ‘Shut Up, Weirdo,’” Gary said amiably.

“By the way,” said Frangry, “You are very handsome and smart, and you have a great voice. Can I marry you?”

“No time for that,” abrupted Andy. “‘Shut Up, Weirdo’ begins in one minute. We have to get over to Studio A!”

The three rushed to the studio just as the crack WFMU production team cued up the intro music.

“It’s 6pm Friday. We have the best new intern ever! And it’s time for ‘Shut Up, Weirdo,’” Andy trilled into the microphone. Behind the glass, Billy Jam adjusted his kilt and dreadlocks and looked on enviously as Gary worked behind the scenes to make sure the broadcast went smoothly.

“Where’s my iPhone?” Frangry cried alarmedly during the first commercial break. “How will I read text messages during the show?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find it,” said Gary, which he then did immediately and with utter ease.

“Thanks,” cooed Frangry gratefully. “You are the best intern ever.”

During the second break, Andy panicked when he realized his detailed notes about Frankenhooker and Alexander Nevsky where nowhere to be found. But Gary had recently seen both films at a double feature and gave Andy all the extremely detailed info he needed.

Everything went smoothly until Station Manager Ken rushed in and announced that WFMU would have to go off the air that minute unless someone could fix the main broadcastimizer that powered the station.

“The reactor core! It’s a bazillion degrees in there,” blurbled a panicked Ken. “If it blows up, millions of people in Jersey City will be dead, and WFMU will be off the air!”

Thinking quickly, Gary rushed into action. “All we have to do is switch to emergency backup,” he said, throwing the appropriate switch on the control board.

“You did it! You saved WFMU and Jersey City,” the station manager victoried. “You are the bravest intern WFMU has ever had. In my 27 years in broadcasting, I have never seen anyone better at radio than you,” grinned Ken. “When you graduate, I want you to become a permanent member of the WFMU team. We’ll give you your own show, any time slot you want, and pay you a million dollars a year. When can you start?”

“That’s all right, Station Manager Ken,” Gary demured handsomly. “All I want is to make ‘Shut Up, Weirdo’ the best call-in show it can be.”

“We are eternally grateful.” said Frangry. “Please marry me.”

“No, marry me!” said Andy.

“Andy, you’re already married,” observed Frangry.

“You’re right!” Andy said, and they all had a really good laugh for a really long time.

THE END

Newsweek.com, 2004: GOP Convention Blog Entries

RNC BLOG: NEW YORK STORIES
NEWSWEEK CORRESPONDENTS ON THE RNC

Posted: Wednesday, September 1 3:03 p.m. ET

Andrew Cohen: Gewgaws! Gewgaws! Gewgaws! What would a political convention be without campaign paraphernalia festooned with candidate names and affiliations? At this year's RNC, the white-hot center for the buying and selling of souvenirs, trinkets and doodads is the "GOP Marketplace," temporarily established on the second floor of the New York Hilton. There were buttons, pins, hats, bumper stickers, mugs, key chains, sweatshirts, novelty ties, watches, scarves, embroidered golf shirts, commemorative coins, posters, plush toys, presidential trivia books, elephant brooches, patriotic Christmas ornaments, I [Heart] NY cuff links, W ketchup, Republican Cabernet Sauvignon, Sean Hannity DVDs, GWB-in-flight-suit pens, a Barney dog bowl, a bipartisan display case of replica presidential footwear, "Hail to the Chief" George Bush jack-in-the-boxes and, finally, politically themed thong sandals (i.e., John Kerry flip-flops).

One of the exhibitors, Jim Lewis of GopGuys.com, came to New York from Amarillo, Texas, with members of his family to sell fellow Republicans his wares, which included rhinestone American-flag lapel pins ($10) and baseballs with images from the life of George W. Bush ($20). "There are some people here that play both sides of the political [fence] and that's OK," says Lewis. "They're making a living, but for us, it's more than just a business. It's a way of life ... We love doing this, being a part of it. It's a historical event."

Although I own a few items of political memorabilia that span the spectrum from Reagan to Lenin, I saw nothing that made me want to trade away any of my coveted collection of small green portraits of Washington, Lincoln and Hamilton that I carry on me. But I didn't leave empty handed. The National Automobile Dealers Association had a whole table covered with free copies of its Summer 2004 official used-car price guide. Now that's useful.

***************************************

Posted: Tuesday, August 31 12:03 p.m. ET

Andrew Cohen: Monday was my day off, and school hasn't started yet, so I thought I'd take my kids to a nice air-conditioned movie theater. They loved "Shaolin Soccer," so we opted to see "Hero," the new Jet Li box-office hit. Plus, with all the stress and disruption caused by having the Republican National Convention in town, you can hardly ask for more escapist fare than a film about flying swordsmen in ancient China.

We live in New Jersey, but the easiest-to-get-to theater showing "Hero" is on 34th Street in Manhattan, just two blocks from Madison Square Garden. No problem. It's always calm in the eye of the storm, right? Plus maybe the kids would get to see a little bit of democracy in action: demonstrators, delegates, police in riot gear--stuff you usually get to see only on TV. If nothing else, I knew Macy's was open, and I needed a new pair of shoes.

The midmorning bus ride into the city took no longer than usual, through as we came out of the Lincoln Tunnel, NYPD traffic cops immediately directed our bus away from its usual destination. Fine. We'd walk an extra block. The stroll south on Ninth Avenue was uneventful, and we arrived at the theater with time to spare. We were so early that I caved to my children's request for a preshow snack. The second-floor dining area of a nearby Wendy's provided a panoramic view of the convention site. Look at the policeman across the street guarding the underground-parking-garage entrance, kids. He's holding the biggest assault rifle I've ever seen outside of a Schwarzenegger movie. And are those snipers on the roof of the Garden?

The movie itself was remarkably soothing for a martial-arts epic. Between the calming soundtrack and lush cinematography, I was soon asleep. But my kids loved it, even though my son, at 7, is still too young to read subtitles. I roused myself too late to totally make sense of the multifaceted plot (my daughter enthusiastically filled me in later), but I emerged from the theater feeling I'd gotten a needed break from the city's all-pervasive RNCiana.

On our way downstairs, we encountered a trickle of betagged convention types heading up the escalators, culminating in the appearance of former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Here for "Alien vs. Predator"? Not at all. Gingrich & Co. were appearing in one of the theaters in the multiplex for a talk sponsored by the Republican Main Street Partnership, a centrist group, in which he denounced the Democrats as the party of "narrow-minded bigotry." In New York this week, even the fantasy world of movies couldn't provide a total escape from the political main event.

Newsweek.com, 2007: Discovering Gamecube

Player Two: In Which A Colleague Goes Retro, and Level Up Gains a Gamecube Correspondent

Posted April 17, 2007 11:02:25 AM

At Newsweek HQ, most of our colleagues are either boomers in name or boomers in spirit, which means there haven't been many serious gamers among our ranks. But from the increasing number of game-related conversations we've had with our office mates, it's clear that this is starting to change. When Newsweek.com associate editor Andrew Cohen mentioned that he and his family had just acquired a Gamecube for their console-free household, we knew we had to get him to write about it. Here is his story.

After many years of inconsolable adult-onset console-lessness, my wife finally agreed to allow a videogame machine into our home. The rationale: my 9-year-son, who is new to competitive ice hockey, was advised by his coach to learn more about the game's strategy and various positions by playing it virtually. Up to that point, my two kids' gaming activities had been limited to Game Boys (not even the DS) and what's free on the Web (e.g. Miniclip.com.)

Armed with my special dispensation, I quickly sorted through the available hardware options and decided that the newest generation (Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3) represented way more gaming firepower and expense than a newbie household could handle. Seeking to take baby steps, I waited until after Xmas and toddled toward Half.com, where I picked up a used Gamecube (two controllers, two memory cards and seven games included) for a mere $75 (plus $15 shipping.) Not bad, and there's still money left for college.

My son could hardly contain himself when the box finally arrived, especially since the parcel was in the possession of the U.S. Postal Service for a full month--three weeks of which were spent in the back room of our local post office (thanks, guys.) Within minutes, we had the machine hooked up and running, and my son was blasting and grinding at will (Metroid Prime and Tony Hawk's Underground, respectively.) Unfortunately, the NHL 2003 game seemed like thin gruel by comparison, especially when my willing-to-play wife wasn't able to get it to work in two-player mode.

For myself, now that the shackles had been removed, there was only one visit to the local GameStop standing between the fulfillment of my adolescent fantasies. So while my anime-addicted teen daughter treated herself to the latest version of Harvest Moon (which I hope will serve as interactive methadone to Japanese cartoon heroin,) I gravitated toward the promise of exuberant vehicular lawlessness and fighter-jock heroics in the form of used copies of the racing game Need for Speed: Underground and the Star Wars-spinoff Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

But to an office-dwelling keyboard-and-mouse man like myself, the Gamecube's multifaceted controller was disconcerting. Let's see, there are all the buttons--A, B, C, X, Y, Z and pause along with the left and right shoulder buttons--the gray thumbstick; and a cross pad. And you need all of them. What the hell? F-1 Ferraris and NASA lunar landers don't have this many controls. And so, racing against my son, I crashed a lot. (What the hell?) And each time, the controller vibrated weirdly in my hands, like a novelty joy buzzer. (What the hell?) I've been a licensed driver for 20 years; my son doesn't even know what a transmission does. And he beats me every time. (What the hell?)

With all of this daunting complexity staring me in the face, I decided to focus on one game and master it. Rogue Squadron II fit the bill: it's a relatively simple space combat game with absolutely beautiful graphics, and it has an extensive training mission on Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine to show you the ropes. Soon I was hunting womprats like a native, and though I still haven't beat Biggs and Wedge in the race to Toshi Station, I feel confident that I'll do so once I've logged a few more hours in the cockpit.

Meanwhile, a return trip to GameStop yielded a copy of the highly satisfying NHL 06, which has brought my wife fully into the videogame fold. We're still showing some restraint, as our Gamecube doesn't get used every day (I play it maybe once a week) but it's nevertheless rewarding to have taken this baby step into the world of consoledom. By this time next year, I may be ready to cruise eBay in search of a gently used Wii console. It takes all the old Gamecube games, right? [Editor's note: Why yes, it does.]

Permalink: http://ncroal.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=569397

Newsweek.com, 2005: 'Elements of Style,' the Musical!

Strunk, White—And Good Grammar Set to Music
'The Elements of Style,' the classic manual for clear writing, re-emerges as a hip new tome and an avant-garde musical piece.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Cohen

Oct. 28, 2005 - Can grammar be hip? Is proper comma use cool? With the publication of Maira Kalman's smart new illustrated edition of Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" (Penguin) the classic manual to good writing, it's suddenly—and unexpectedly—a question worth asking.

The manual itself has something of an illustrious history. William Strunk Jr., a Cornell professor of English, self-published the first version in 1918 for use by his students. It contained seven rules of usage (e.g., "Do not join independent clauses by a comma") and 11 timeless rules of composition, including "Omit needless words," "Use the active voice" and "Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end."

About a dozen years after Strunk's death in 1946, one of his students, E. B. White, (yes, that E. B. White—the famed New Yorker writer and author of "Charlotte's Web" and "Stuart Little,") updated and expanded the thin, little book at a publisher's request, adding himself as coauthor. The resulting work, which has sold 10 million copies since it first appeared in 1959, has guided generations of anxiety-prone authors, from high-school students and corporate report writers to White House speechwriters and beatnik poets.

Maira Kalman, an illustrator and children's book author best known for her New Yorker covers, including the popular "Newyorkistan" map of few years ago, told The New York Times she was so taken by the colorful examples used in Strunk and White to illustrate their grammatical points that she wondered why anyone hadn't illustrated them before. Thus, her illustrations for the book contain such captions as: "Polly loves cake more than she loves me," "It was a unique eggbeater," "None of us is perfect" and "Well, Susan, this is a fine mess you are in."

Her zeal for the book has since spilled over into the musical realm. She shared her enthusiasm with family friend Nico Muhly, a Juilliard-trained composer who wrote an operatic song cycle based on the book, "The Elements of Style: Nine Songs," which had its gala premier Oct. 19 in the main reading room of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

Although lyrics like "Revise and rewrite" and "Do not use a hyphen between two words that can better be written as one word" suggest the didactic thrust of "Schoolhouse Rock," Muhly's work is more in the minimalist-modernist mold of Philip Glass and Steve Reich but with an absurdist dash of Spike Jones. At just 33½ minutes long, the work was impressively executed by soprano Abigail Fischer, tenor Matthew Hensrud, violist Nadia Sirota and banjo player Sam Amidon, all under the direction of Muhly and augmented by the Omit Needless Words Orchestra, which included noise-making amateur performers such as fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and cartoonist Rick Meyerowitz (Kalman's "Newyorkistan" collaborator), as well as Kalman herself. Their brief mandated the making of sounds incorporating duck calls, meat grinders, bells, Slinkys, mallets, pillows, eggbeaters, megaphones, "chattering" cups and saucers, a typewriter and the slamming closed of a large book.

Unfortunately, the operatic style of the piece rendered the lyrics all but unintelligible to this listener—in ironic contrast to the simplifying ethos of "Elements"—though that may be more the fault of the acoustics of the library venue, which was, after all, designed for silence.

Not that any of this prevented the piece from garnering titters of appreciation capped by a standing ovation from the high-tone crowd in attendance. Although the piece may have violated E. B. White's advice to "Prefer the standard to the offbeat," it was more than effective in fulfilling another edict: "Be obscure clearly."

This article first appeared on Newsweek.com on Oct. 28, 2005

Newsweek.com, 2005: James Bond, Spy Teen

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

THE SPY WHO LOVED PREQUELS

AUTHOR CHARLIE HIGSON HAS BEEN GIVEN THE ASSIGNMENT TO WRITE THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF NOVELS ABOUT FICTION'S MOST FAMOUS SECRET AGENT ... AS A TEENAGER.

BY ANDREW B. COHEN

The Duke of Wellington reputedly said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Was the battle against Dr. No and Goldfinger won there as well?

The estate of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was looking to extend the half-century reign of fiction's most celebrated spy by publishing a series of new novels about Agent 007--this time aimed at readers age 9 to 12. In "SilverFin" (Miramax Books), the first in the projected five-book "Young Bond" series, we encounter 007 as a harried 13-year-old orphan newly arrived at Eton, the elite boarding school near London. The books take place in the early '30s, well before the future superspy sipped his first martini or seduced Pussy Galore--though he is given a teenage love interest named Wilder Lawless. "SilverFin" is a tale of intrigue and danger set partly at Eton and partly during spring break in Scotland, near Loch Silverfin, where--what else?--an evil genius is hatching a diabolical plot for world domination.

The Fleming estate, hoping to crack the world of kids' lit, tapped Charlie Higson, 46, the author of several horror novels for adults to write the prequel. Though best known as a star of BBC comedy programs, Higson has made a splash with young Bond. His book is already a success in the U.K., where it was published in March, and the U.S. publisher expects similar success here. Higson, who is currently on tour to promote "SilverFin," recently spoke with NEWSWEEK's Andrew Cohen. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: I understand that The Fleming estate approached you first about doing the series. How did that come about?
Charlie Higson: They had a woman working for them at the time called Kate Jones, who had been my original editor when I was writing adult thrillers ... She knew that I wrote in a fairly kind of direct, hard-boiled style that they felt would be suitable for kids. And she knew that I was a Bond fan and that I had kids.

What ground rules did the Fleming estate impose?
The main ground rule was that it had to get as close as possible with everything Ian Fleming wrote and any facts that he gave in the books, so the time scale had to fit with him ... We came up with 1920 as a birth date, but also because the early 1930s were an interesting time to write about.

In writing a book for kids, you couldn't resort to the sex and violence that are so much a part of the 007 identity. How did you deal with that?
On that front, I had no ground rules from the Flemings, because they are as new to kids' fiction as I am. And I just thought, and Kate said, write how you want to write it, and we'll see what the publisher thinks ... I had to tone down a couple bits of explicit gore. We've tried to push it a bit, because kids these days expect a bit more from fiction. I've had to cut some more bits for the American version than the English--the American publishers were smartly more squeamish.

Can you give me an example of what we're missing out in the U.S. version?
There's one bit where a body is fished out of a lake. In the English version an eel comes out of his mouth, and in the American version the eel comes out of his shirt collar. It's little tiny things like that ... Apparently, one of the reasons the Flemings were interested in me was because my adult books are quite extreme, they're quite violent, and very dark, and they quite wanted these books to have a bit of an edge to them, a dark edge. The Fleming books are obviously quite dark in places, and they wanted these books to not be a jolly, old-fashioned Enid Blyton-style romp ... He is James Bond, so we do expect a lot of action and death and mayhem. But you do want to be careful with kids books.

How influenced were you, or the estate, by the success of the Harry Potter books? Did you feel a need to emulate them, or else go out of your way to not resemble them?
Obviously, the success of the Harry Potter books is one of the things that made the Flemings realize that perhaps they could do some serious books for kids ... Once they decided to do Bond at that age, there's no getting away from the fact that he went to a boarding school--that's what Ian Fleming said. These are not school-based stories like the Harry Potter stories. Eton is the kind of backdrop, and from there Bond goes off around the world for his various adventures. But there's been a long, long tradition of school-based fiction, boarding school in particular. It's a great environment for kids' fiction because the kids are in a world of other kids, and they're completely out of the domestic home environment, so they don't have to worry about mum and dad and brothers and sisters and all that. I think that's very attractive to kids.

In Britain, you're best known as a comedian--your work on TV--but you've also written the horror novels. Were you trying to be funny, or did you hold back on the humor?
I don't like reading comic novels, but I love reading thrillers. So I've always just written, for books, the type of books that I like to read. The books I wrote before were adult thrillers ... and I'd been tinkering with the idea of doing some sort of thriller for kids. I've got three boys of my own, and I wanted to write something they could read, so when the Flemings approached me, I thought, great, what a fantastic opportunity, but we didn't want it to be a sort of jokey, Roger Moore type of Bond.

I ask because I've always thought the Fleming novels were quite unintentionally funny.
Fleming, with his own voice coming through, can be outrageously funny at times ... I wanted this to be a good, tough, straight-down-the-line action thriller. I find TV is a great outlet for any funny ideas I might have. There are moments of humor in the book, but I absolutely didn't want to write a comic novel for kids.

In the book, the Bond character is more of an Everyman, or Everykid, as opposed to the Bond in the movies, who is more like a superhero. You didn't give him any extraordinary abilities.
The adult James Bond] is a superhero without superpowers. And in the movies, he's much more impervious than he is in Ian Fleming's books. [In] the books, he's more of a real man. If someone hits him, he gets hurt. He gets angry a lot. He gets depressed a lot ... But because he has no background [in the adult books] and no domestic life, he is the sort of character that you can project yourself into slightly. And I think it's important for kids' books that they can relate to the character. So I wanted to start the books with a fairly ordinary boy and show him growing toward becoming the man that he is--growing a sort of hard shell about him ... But I didn't want to write this little shrunk-down kid in a tuxedo who is constantly coming out with double entendres and beating up guys 10 times his size.

In this first book, the villain is American--what's up with that?
[Laughs.] Well, I wanted to get away from the cliche of the villain being deformed or disfigured in some way, because I know disabled groups get quite upset, and you can't keep equating being disfigured with being evil. So I wanted to go the other way and do a [villain] who was so handsome and so good looking that he was kind of scarily perfect, so I needed a villain who was tall and broad-shouldered and [with a] perfect tan and white teeth, and I thought [laughs] it's going to have to be an American. And I also wanted to get away from it being a greasy foreigner, and Americans aren't considered foreign in England, so those two things came together. But don't worry, the villain in the next one is an Italian.

That makes me feel better. Has there been any interest in a film version?
There's been a lot of interest in the film rights. I mean, obviously, it's James Bond, and it's for kids--look how well Harry Potter has done--but we want to get the books established in their own right, and get as many of them out as we can and hopefully [they'll be] popular and successful and make it a very distinctive new brand for Bond, distinct [from] the adult movies, so that there's no confusion between the adult ones and the kids' ones, but that means getting the books established first.

This article originally appeared on Newsweek.com on May 13, 2005

Newsweek.com, 2001: Post-9/11 Rumors

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: RUMOR-BUSTING

WHY YOU SHOULDN'T BOTHER IRONING YOUR MAIL OR AVOIDING MALLS ON HALLOWEEN

BY ANDREW B. COHEN

If you receive any e-mail you probably got a message about how the French astronomer Nostradamus correctly predicted in 1654 the collapse of the World Trade Center: "In the City of God there will be a great thunder/Two brothers torn apart by Chaos/while the fortress endures/the great leader will succumb."

Despite the fact that few consider New York "the City of God" and that no "great leader" has as yet succumbed, it may surprise you to learn that the above prediction was made not by Nostradamus in 1654 (he'd been dead 88 years by then) but by a Canadian college student in 1997 who was trying to show that any "prophesy" worded vaguely enough will eventually "come true." That prediction was correct.

Since Sept. 11, any number of rumors, scares, urban myths and bits of misinformation have been circulating via e-mail, from the story that a second wave of terror would occur on Sept. 22 (it didn't) and that ironing your mail will kill any anthrax spores (it won't) to the tale of the hip-hop album cover that prophetically depicted burning twin towers (true, but was changed before release).

Barbara Mikkelson is a self-described Los Angeles-area housewife who with her husband, David, a Web programmer, runs a popular Web site called Urban Legends Reference Pages, better known by its Web address: Snopes.com. The site currently reports the status of more than 60 rumors that have popped up since Sept. 11 under the heading Rumors of War. NEWSWEEK's Andrew B. Cohen spoke with Mikkelson. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What's the most prevalent rumor you've come across since Sept. 11?
Barbara Mikkelson: A few are way up there. The first is Nostradamus. You couldn't go anywhere without tripping over this rumor. The second was "the accidental tourist" [a photo purported to have been taken on the WTC's observation deck moments before the plane hit]. You had a few weeks to deal with this raw wound, and then this photo brought it all back. The photo was fake but the feelings are real. The latest is the "don't go to the mall on Halloween" e-mail. This one has made it into the off-line world.

How do you go about collecting rumors?
Hearing them is the easy part. People e-mail us stuff all the time. And people tell us about stuff they hear on the street. We get hundreds of e-mails a day. I read all of them.

What are the latest?
Well, there's the story of an apparent Arab-looking man who bought a large amount of candy at Costco, then went back and bought even more candy, the implication being that he was planning some sort of mass poisoning for Halloween. I'm currently checking out that one. Then there's the story of the Arkansas congressman who couldn't get on plane in Arkansas until he showed his Sam's Club member card as ID. That one was supposedly reported on C-SPAN Radio. Allegedly his congressional photo ID wasn't good enough.

What's the most surprising true rumor you've come across?
The United Airlines pilot speech [in which a pilot on a Sept. 15 flight told passengers to counterattack any attempted hijackers with blankets and pillows]. I would have bet money that that one was false. It's a re-empowerment story. I would have bet money that no professional pilot would have made that speech. These guys are trained to make passengers feel safe, not talk about knives and bombs. A pilot telling passengers to tackle hijackers with pillows is just unprecedented.

I thought I read that United was unable to verify the existence of that flight's pilot.
Yes, but I have the feeling that United is trying to protect itself, distance itself, by being "unable" to identify the pilot. I think they know full well who the pilot was on that flight.

What is your methodology for assessing the validity of a rumor?
Basically I'm first going to go to online databases to see what other people have found out. If there's a company involved, I'll go to their Web site. Companies often hear the rumors first and will respond to them on their Web site, especially wise companies. Nothing will stop a rumor in its tracks, but that will help. If there's nothing on the Web site, then I'll call the company directly. Then sometimes I'll go to the library to try to find something in writing. When I find the time, I like to go through old copies of Reader's Digest; many of today's rumors began years ago as "Life in These United States" or [other] items in the Reader's Digest.

When people hear the latest scare, what should they do before they act on it?
Use your common sense, but most important is to sit on your hands before you hit the forward button [in an e-mail]. Nothing terrible will happen if you take five minutes to think it through before acting.

This article originally appeared on Newsweek.com on Oct. 19, 2001.