Besides its other merits, this piece by Jonathan Kay brings up the hilariously terrifying possibility of “a pool full of Swastika-emblazoned sharks,” so obviously I had to mention it.

As I mentioned yesterday, at the moment I’m revising the manuscript for my new book, and dealing with decisions about the use of humor. I’m also revising an unrelated screenplay, based on notes from a producer, and dealing with some similar issues in it.

One of the things coming up in both of these projects is the question of using jokes for jokes’ sake — in other words, jokes that don’t necessarily push the plot forward or hang seamlessly together with the rest of the piece. Should you use such jokes in writing? How funny do they need to be in order to justify their presence?

So it was interesting to read this discussion over at SlashFilm about a throwaway joke in Up in the Air, which some people are apparently interpreting as evidence of a sort of secret subplot. If you haven’t seen it — and this doesn’t spoil anything — at one point, George Clooney’s character  mishears a flight attending asking if he wants the “Can, Sir?” as her asking him if he wants “the cancer.”

This joke doesn’t hang with anything else in the movie (though it does with the book the movie is based on). But according to director Jason Reitman himself, it’s not a secret plot device. It’s just a joke. And sometimes that’s okay.

So I’m back to working, as of an hour ago. First on the agenda are the revisions requested by my editor for the How To Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment manuscript.

The book, as you can tell by its title, is not wholly serious. But one of the issues I’m dealing with in the revisions is the balance between humor and substance. That question of balance is probably the trickiest and most important part of attempting a book like this. It’s a fine line.

So, yeah, that whole getting back to the blog thing in September didn’t exactly happen.

It was a really crazy fall for me, and I haven’t had much time for the blog. But I’m going to ease back into it now — or, more likely, in January.

But, for now, here are some updates:

1. The paperback of Shut Up, I’m Talking will be released this summer.

2. I finished the manuscript of my second book, How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less without Leaving your Apartment, a little later than planned, but it’s in and going through the editorial process now. If all goes well, it should also come out this summer or early fall. Check here for updates, I guess.

3. The only major article I published this fall is here. It’s in Toronto Life, which is sort of the New York magazine of Toronto. The piece is about dealing with undergraduates today and their internet dependence.

4. I’m working on a book proposal for what could potentially be my third book. It’s not about the Middle East.

5. And although I’m definitely going to continue doing Middle East stuff here, I’m also going to be branching out quite a bit. I want to start writing about writing — in all its forms.

6. Speaking of that, I’ve been dabbling in screenwriting. More on that later, I hope.

Because I’m still being pestered about this, I want to make one quick point about my “Obama should make Bush Middle East Envoy” piece that Newsweek ran the week before last.

As should have been evident to anyone who actually read the article all the way through and has even a modicum of ability in critical thinking and reading comprehension, it was quite obviously mostly tongue-in-cheek and meant simply as a thought exercise. If some people somehow didn’t see that, that’s pretty unfortunate.

Like I said, I’m off doing book stuff until September, but I took another little break to write another Newsweek piece yesterday.

So if you haven’t quite picked up on it yet, I consider myself on leave from this blog until early September — when I will have finished writing my new book. I hope to have some big announcements here after that as well.

At that point, I’m actually also going to change up what goes on here a little bit, perhaps with a little more emphasis on discussing writing (in all its forms) and somewhat less emphasis on making jokes about international relations. 

But speaking of that, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that I have my first piece in NEWSWEEK today. It’s a little odd, but take a look.

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UPDATE (07/30): Memo to people of the internet — don’t take things so literally.

I know, I know, it’s been forever. But I’m trying to write another book here, as well as another big writing project I can’t mention yet…

Swine Flu Music.

It’s good to see the Israeli health authorities are dealing with the important issues at this dicey time — making sure that the name of “Swine Flu” is changed to “Mexican Flu,” because swine is not kosher.