Total Recall

Well, it's official: Little Brown books has announced that it will recall Viswanathan's now infamous novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life." As an author, it is, of course, troubling to think that a writer could be paid half-a-million clams, and no one, not the agent at William Morris, not the editors at Little Brown, not even the fact checkers, spotted the similarities between the works in question.
Not that scrutiny shouldn't be paid to manuscripts of authors with advances that pale by comparison (read: yours truly's), but still... In this case, the bouncer at the local Cambridge watering hole probably scrutinized Viswanathan's fake I.D. card with a sharper eye than the folks at Little Brown.

I'm glad they recalled the book. The occasion is now #2 on my all-time list of most deserving recalls, second only to the Firestone Tire recall of 2000, which was blamed for as many as 150 deaths around the world.

Here is another recent, lesser-known recall you should be aware of:

28 March 2006 --- Two flavors of Nestlé Country Creamery Ice Cream purchased from Wal-Mart stores in Texas are being recalled because the ice cream may contain egg not identified on the label.

And if you happen to be passing through New Zealand:
25 April 2006 -- Tegel Zoo Animal Chicken Nuggets with batch codes 16073 AM and 16073 PM, have been recalled in New Zealand due to possible contamination with metal fragments.

There've probably been several more food-related recalls in the news over the last month, but honestly, I don't recall.