Steve Martin was on the Today Show this morning plugging his new movie, Novocaine. It looks like it will be pretty good. (This is his second role as a dentist, of course.) I forgot to mention that I read his book, ShopGirl, earlier this year and thought it was wonderful. The book is somewhere between a very long short story and a very short novel. It’s not a comedy, but it’s not exactly a love story, either. I usually judge books by how they make me feel when I’m done reading. When I got to the end of ShopGirl, I wasn’t sad or happy or disappointed; there wasn’t any overwhelming emotion, actually. There was just a sort of contented feeling, as if I had finished a good meal. It wasn’t delicious or terrible, but I was sated for a little while. I liked it very much.