The Olsens will see you now. So you want the Olsen twins to sign a copy of your book? (Okay, we have no idea why, but let’s just assume you do.) If you’re one of the people who showed up today at Barnes & Noble in Union Square then you know it wasn’t as easy as you thought it might be. — Radar

The lost years and last days of David Foster. He was six-feet-two, and on a good day he weighed 200 pounds. He wore granny glasses with a head scarf, points knotted at the back, a look that was both pirate-like and housewife-ish. He always wore his hair long. He had dark eyes, soft voice, caveman chin, a lovely, peak-lipped mouth that was his best feature. He walked with an ex-athlete’s saunter, a roll from the heels, as if anything physical was a pleasure. David Foster Wallace worked surprising turns on nearly everything: novels, journalism, vacation. — Rolling Stone

Vietnam considers driving ban for small-chested people. Vietnam is considering a ban on small-chested people driving motorbikes – a proposal that has provoked widespread disbelief, all the more in this nation of slightly built people. — The Guardian

The mysterious cough, caught on film. In Roald Dahl’s novel The B.F.G., the title character, a big friendly giant, captures dreams in glass jars. At Pennsylvania State University, a professor of engineering has captured something less whimsical but no less ephemeral — a cough — on film. — International Herald Tribune

Things really must be bad — AC/DC are No 1 again. First Gordon Brown and Mervyn King, the Bank of England’s governor, admitted that Britain was on the verge of recession. Then food sales were reported to have seen their biggest fall for 20 years. Last night came final and irrevocable proof that the country is entering tough economic times, unseen since the 80s: AC/DC have returned to the top of the album charts for the first time in 28 years. — The Guardian

Lipstick on a pig. A 2008 Campaign Quiz. — The New Yorker