“The world is getting hotter, the ice caps are melting, because man keeps saying to nature, Hey, our whole idea of a cozy future is to have jobs. That’s all we’ve got planned. What’s more, we will pursue this aim at any cost, even, paradoxically, if it means the eventual destruction of our workplace. Man says, Sacrifice industry and economy and jobs? For what? Future generations? I don’t even know those guys! I’ll tell you something for free ― it makes me ashamed that our species, which is so finely ennobled by its sacrifices, winds up sacrificing it all for the wrong things and comes off looking like a race of people who like to use their hair dryer while taking a bath .

From the inbox:

Tribute to poet Anne Sexton

Sunday, November 18th at 2 pm

Don't miss our 5th annual celebration of the life and legacy of Anne Sexton, featuring readings and reminiscences by four friends and colleagues

Join us for our annual tribute to Anne Sexton, who wrote fearlessly about family, sexuality, despair, and joy, pioneering a radical new poetry.

Editor DAVID FOSTER WALLACE lead a formidable group of contributors in a discussion of this year's answer to The Best American Essays. And tonight, Elaine Scarry, Jerald Walker, and Robert Atwan will bring their work to the reading stage. So if you've already puzzled over this week's "Modern Love," caught up on all your old New Yorkers, and let your Atlantic Monthly subscription accidentally expire, tonight is your night. That's at 7 pm at the Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | free | 617.566.6660.

Thanks to Brookline Booksmith for hosting the Nick Hornby reading

Just to make sure, we decided to wait until the Curse of the Hornbino had been demolished by Your 2007 Boston Red Sox before posting the rest of Nick Hornby's Q&A at the Devotion School in Brookline, where the patron saint of record-store geeks and football obsessives appeared last week to read from his so-called young-adult novel Slam, about a Tony Hawk-worshipping teenager named Sam who flees his hometown after knocking up his girlfriend.

Masaharu Morimoto is our favorite (and always underrated - God those judges are fools) Iron Chef. He'll be making an appearance on Wednesday, Oct. 10 at the Boston University Barnes & Noble to promote his new cookbook, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking. According to our press release, in addition to the booksigning, BU has asked Mirimoto to demonstrate his recipes for the Seminars in the Culinary Arts:

Yesterday, Pacifica Radio broadcast an uncensored version of Allen Ginsberg reading his seminal poem "HOWL." Oct 3 marked the 50th annivesary of a court ruling that determined "HOWL" was not obscene, but a work of social and literary merit. It's awesome. Stream the reading here, at Pacifica's website, follow along with the full text here, and watch him briefly chit-chatting about the wonders of technology below:

From the inbox:

Pierre Menard Gallery on Arrow Street has offered space to Somerville-based Cervena Barva Press editor and publisher, Gloria Mindock, for a new series that will run monthly through April 2008. Mary Bonina is helping coordinate the series which will be held in the Pierre Menard Gallery above Lame Duck Books.

Tonight!

Steve Almond, Laura Dave, and editor Jenni Ferarri-Adler read from Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. Twenty-six writers (including Nora Ephron, Ann Patchett, and Haruki Murakami) reflect on their passion for food and solitude. It's probably okay if you bring snacks to the Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660.

Word Up has many inexplicable literary crushes: Mr. Darcy, Ira Glass, Laurie Laurence, John Galt, Walter Burns in His Girl Friday. You know.

Then there's Alan Alda. Seriously, how can you not LOVE Alan Alda? Look at him!

Timed to our Alda reverie, the marketing mavens at Harvard Book Store just alerted us to a couple upcoming fall events, which includes this little gem:

Having taken meticulous notes and planned the novel during his cross-country travels, JACK KEROUAC wrote the first draft of On the Road in a three-week burst of creativity, taping sheets of paper together so they could run through his typewriter uninterrupted. After a cross-country exhibition tour, the original scroll has returned to Lowell’s Boott Cotton Mills Museum, where its display will be part of "ON THE ROAD IN LOWELL,” a festival of readings, musical performances, and art exhibits (see www.