Today May 16, 2012
Halal hysteria: First there was a frenzy in England over the hijab. Now it's a panic over meat. More »
New Statesman / 10 min (2,609 words)
Cy Young, meet John Roberts: The Supreme Court’s “umpire” has become its pitcher. More »
Boston Review / 5 min (1,223 words)
Survival of the altruist: Evolution is not just a matter of selfish genes and cutthroat competition. It pays to cooperate. More »
Wilson Quarterly / 5 min (1,327 words)
It takes all kinds of weirdos to make a world. Including writers. More »
New York Times / 5 min (1,361 words)
Tuesday May 15, 2012
Leonardo Da Vinci can sometimes seem like a ghost from another era. But one writer has managed to capture his immortality. More »
The American Scholar / 5 min (1,275 words)
The late Patrice O’Neal was equally obnoxious and brilliant. He also instilled the fear of God in his fellow comedians. More »
NYMag / 23 min (5,809 words)
It’s been called everything from The People’s Republic to Taxachusetts. It’s also our greatest state. More »
Slate / 6 min (1,414 words)
A virgin on television is like Chekhov’s loaded gun: neither will stay that way for long. More »
Salon / 4 min (1,054 words)
Monday May 14, 2012
Can you judge a book by its dust jacket? Yes, indeed. More »
Times Literary Supplement / 3 min (814 words)
If you think your job stinks, be grateful you aren't the American ambassador to Moscow. More »
Foreign Affairs / 6 min (1,519 words)
Why do some writers shun the spotlight? Anne Tyler's first face-to-face interview in forty years provides a clue. More »
The Guardian / 15 min (3,845 words)
College is about more than credits and degrees. It may also be the basis of truly democratic citizenship. More »
The Nation / 12 min (3,086 words)
Sunday May 13, 2012
The death of the Western: Political correctness has killed a great genre of American film. More »
Threepenny Review / 7 min (1,831 words)
Saturday May 12, 2012
Are corpses good medicine? And what sort of flesh should we be eating, anyway? More »
Smithsonian Magazine / 6 min (1,393 words)
Friday May 11, 2012
One book changed all our assumptions about science. What’s left: a giant void. More »
The Chronicle Review / 13 min (3,227 words)
Remember those psychological experiments where guards and torturers switch places? In Libya, it's actually happening. More »
New York Times / 31 min (7,855 words)
Are there different rules for good poetry writing vs. good prose writing? Three poets and a writer have the answer. More »
American Poetry Review / 19 min (4,766 words)
Meta headline here: A link to a humorous article about linking to articles. More »
The New Yorker / 3 min (697 words)
Thursday May 10, 2012
The downside of stoicism: Why does the United Kingdom tolerate a financial super-class? More »
New Statesman / 5 min (1,179 words)
Baseball players exchange wordless secrets on the field. Drivers signal angrily through car windows. Can our gestures uncover the mysteries of communication? More »
Lapham's Quarterly / 13 min (3,175 words)
The encyclopedia belongs to a great tradition of monumental, fragile texts. What have we lost in the age of Wikipedia? More »
Open Letters Monthly / 9 min (2,316 words)
The language wars will never end. But the fight over grammar and spelling is about more than pedantry.
More »The New Republic / 6 min (1,470 words)
Wednesday May 9, 2012
Can America’s conservative insurgency take root in the Far East? Welcome to Japan’s Tea Party. More »
The Atlantic / 4 min (1,027 words)
Every Hollywood blockbuster spawns unbearably bad sequels and spin-offs. But God help us: The Avengers is good. More »
Grantland / 6 min (1,578 words)
"Grim Grin," Kingsley Amis jokingly called Graham Greene. But one famous writer's obsession with Greene is no laughing matter. More »
Los Angeles Review of Books / 9 min (2,226 words)