December 2011
1 post
My Top 5 Longreads, 2011
Getting Bin Laden Nicholas Schmidle, The New Yorker
“Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, ‘For God and...
February 2011
1 post
The New Rules
This note by Dave Eggers came with a little box of books I just bought.
The New Rules
I don’t know why it came down to me to tell you about this, but anyway, here goes: if you don’t buy at least ten books a year, you’ll be struck by lightning, or maybe a bus. Its the new rule. Yeah. You’ll probably be sent a more official notice in the mail soon, but for now, you’re hearing it from me. ...
January 2011
1 post
Deathlist 2011
also on Facebook Current tally: 0/20 Ronnie Biggs, train robber Ray Bradbury*, sci-fi author Fidel Castro, former president of Cuba Dick Cheney*, former Vice President of the US Bob Dole*, former US presidential candidate Kirk Douglas, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor, multiply-married actor Billy Graham, evangelist Denis Healey*, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Christopher Hitchens*, writer and journalist...
December 2010
1 post
Sports Night -- The Hungry and the Hunted
Isaac: What the hell happened out there?
Jeremy: It was nothing.
Dana: It was not nothing.
Jeremy: I got sick, I threw up.
Dana: They took you to a hospital. You passed out.
Jeremy: I told them they didn’t have to take me to—
Dana: Bob Shoemaker said you were sweating and hyperventilating.
Jeremy: It was hot outside.
Dana: Not in the Adirondacks in October.
Jeremy:...
November 2010
1 post
My Top Longreads, 2010
The Art of the Steal Joshuah Bearman, Wired
“Blanchard slowly approached the display and removed the already loosened screws, carefully using a butter knife to hold in place the two long rods that would trigger the alarm system. The real trick was ensuring that the spring-loaded mechanism the star was sitting on didn’t register that the weight above it had changed. He reached into his...
July 2010
1 post
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes -- David Grann
I’ve just finished reading the book The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann. It’s a collection of his magazine journalism, mostly from The New Yorker, and I liked it very much. It turns out that most of the articles are available online, so I’ve collected them below.
A lot of the pieces here fall roughly into the category of “true crime”, and indeed this is...
April 2010
1 post
March 2010
1 post
Best Journalism of 2008(?!)
I always think there’s less of a chance I’ll lose this kind of thing if there’s a copy on the internet somewhere. And it’s only 15 months too old to be interesting… Conor Friedersdorf’s list is here.
THE ELECTION
Making It Ryan Lizza The New Yorker
“HENDON: Senator, could you correctly pronounce your name for me? I’m having a little trouble with it....
February 2010
1 post
Long-Form Journalism, 2009
The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist
Joshua Davis, Wired
“‘I may be a thief and a liar,’ he says in beguiling Italian-accented French. ‘But I am going to tell you a true story.’”
Over Detroit Skies Roey Rosenblith, Huffington Post
“I was on my third in-flight movie when the screaming started, shattering my tired half-awake...
January 2010
15 posts
Wikipedia: Micromort →
“A micromort is a unit of risk measuring a one-in-a-million probability of death.”
“You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that...”
– Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
WatchI still have no idea what Christopher Nolan’s new film is about
“If Grijalva feels the need to take out some anger on the Senate, he should pass...”
– Matt Yglesias
“In the end, though, the rules do matter - it’s just that obeying them...”
– David Mitchell on grammar-based pedantry
WatchOK Go - This Too Shall Pass
Films of the 00s
And again…
28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002)
Amélie [Le fabuleux destin d’Amél ie Poulain] (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)
The Edukators [Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei] (Hans Weingarten, 2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard, 2008)
Hero [Ying xiong]...
A Few Too Many: Is there any hope for the hung... →
Twitter Links (December 2009)
“‘Dry’ vodka can be wrapped in paper and carried around in a pocket or a bag.” Yay?
You’ll read my, you’ll read my, you can read my Neutraface. (Even if it’s bold italic.)
Ampersandwich
Pope’s playlist: “Presumably he can relate to the lyrics ‘I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black.’”
Cool...
December 2009
16 posts
RANdom CAPITALizATION and other secrets of angry... →
“Dear American Patriot: Thank you for your letter, which reminds me of some of the earlier essays of Thomas Jefferson.”
“The fact is while the overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding people,...”
– Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
Albums of the 00s
All the cool kids seem to be doing this…
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns (2009)
Björk - Vespertine (2001)
Fever Ray - Fever Ray (2009)
The Knife - Deep Cuts (2003)
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself (2005)
Lamb - What Sound (2001)
Portishead - Third (2008)
Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
Émilie Simon - Végétal (2006)
Thom Yorke - The Eraser (2006)
If I had to pick just one, it would be...
Over Detroit Skies →
An eyewitness account of the recent attempted terrorist attack
“This morning I pitched the idea of trying to do health reform in a secret...”
– Matt Yglesias solves US politics
“When I first began writing for The Times, I was naïve about many things. But my...”
– Paul Krugman
New Portishead, if you're into that sort of thing →
November 2009
14 posts
Watch“You know, there are certain days that remind me why I ran for this office. And then there are moments like this, where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland.” (It’s almost like The West Wing)
“I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I...”
– State Senator Chris Buttars (R-UT)
The Fall of Greg Craig →
“I don’t know about you but whenever I read a blog I do not let my eye drop...”
– Stephen Fry
Kid Critics: Hamilton, Age 4 →
Does everybody have a wrestler name? Do you have one? Yeah. What’s yours? Mike Jordan Michael. But that’s not it.
Slate's unauthorized index of Sarah Palin's... →
Actual sentence in book: “As the soles of my shoes hit the soft ground, I pushed past the tall cottonwood trees in a euphoric cadence, and meandered through willow branches that the moose munched on.”
The Guardian reviews the Pope's Christmas album →
“The papal singing voice is confined to a single track in this pseudo-spiritual soup of intoned prayer, bastardised Gregorian chant, syrupy orchestral arrangements and portentous vocalising.”
