February 2012
8 posts
3 tags
“At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon...”
– This obit of John Fairfax is one of the most absurd, enthralling and encouraging stories I have ever read.
3 tags
4 tags
6 tags
4 tags
“The Hotel Workers Union, under the leadership of Peter Ward, has created a...”
– FYI for all the freelancers in New York City worrying about health insurance. This might be something for you to keep an eye on, via Council Speaker Quinn’s State of the City address today. She’s beginning to lay the groundwork for her Mayoral run in 2013.
3 tags
3 tags
Happy Birthday, Gay Talese →
longformorg:
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something. But he said nothing; he had been silent during much of the evening, except now in this private club in Beverly Hills he seemed even more distant, staring out...
2 tags
January 2012
3 posts
3 tags
“Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a...”
– Bill Bryson isn’t a particularly deep read, but, more often than not, he’s on point when he waxes poetically like this. From neither here nor there.
2 tags
“Because … what the hell has Kim Kardashian ever done besides the X-rated...”
– Jack McCallum leading off Scorecard in this week’s Sports Illustrated. He absolutely obliterates reality TV culture. Fantastic.
3 tags
“I used to tell your sister when she was a kid that if she didn’t study...”
– This is 1980’s Harlem my mom is referring to. Now my sister has her own kids. Can’t wait to see what threats she has in store for them.
December 2011
8 posts
2 tags
2 tags
“But theology is only in part social commentary. Crucially it has to do with the...”
– The Book of Books by Marilynne Robinson. Reading this twice was the extent of my critical thinking this weekend. Everybody needs to recharge at some point, right?
2 tags
3 tags
4 tags
2 tags
1 tag
1 tag
“‘It was as if I woke up one morning and realized that however good or bad...”
– The Two-Fisted, One-Eyed Misadventures of Sportswriting’s Last Badass by Alex Belth
November 2011
9 posts
1 tag
4 tags
2 tags
Running is other people
classicaldotorg:
By Max Linsky I cut the line to get this picture taken after running the New York City Marathon last week, my second 26-miler of 2011. Eighteen months ago, I was not running marathons. Mostly, I was smoking cigarettes. For a solid decade before I quit, I was one of the world’s great smokers—naturally talented, fiercely committed, a real workhorse. Which is to say: if you...
2 tags
“But if you looking for change, how are we going to do the same thing they did?...”
– This story about Tayshana Murphy’s murder will be the saddest thing you’ll read today.
3 tags
The accidental emotion of NBA 2K12
classicaldotorg:
by Lang Whitaker For many years there were two NBA video games that battled for supremacy each fall: the NBA 2K series from 2K Sports, and the NBA Live series from EA Sports. Each franchise had fans, but there was no clear winner — no Madden, as it were. This proved healthy: both publishers were driven to innovate in an attempt to capture whatever unclaimed market share...
3 tags
WatchNi**as in Paris - WTT in Jersey last night.
3 tags
1 tag
Pliers
Two weeks ago an oral surgeon told me my lower right wisdom tooth was impacted. I said, so what? He said it should be removed to prevent complications further down the road. I said, you’re the Doc.
Yesterday I was laying back in the dentist’s chair while the assistant assembled the metal tools that would be ripping into my lower jaw. In walks Doc, who quickly goes to work. First came...
4 tags
October 2011
14 posts
1 tag
3 tags
Aging
I went to Verizon the other night because my mom wanted to get the iPhone 4s. My mom, bless her heart, is having trouble reading tiny font without her glasses these days. But she was determined to own her first smartphone, and the fancy iPhone at that. So I said to her:
Me: Mom, I want you to type “I am sending this text message” without your glasses on.
Mom: I can do that.
...
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
“We have to change our values. We have to think about how we can get happy....”
– Haruki Murakami to the New York Times Magazine
2 tags
“In sum, for time to be meaningful, it needs to be filled by distance; for...”
– A Man, a Bike and 4,100 Miles by Bruce Weber
9 tags
The Mountaintop
Almost a month ago I read a story in the New Yorker about the playwright Katori Hall, and her upcoming play The Mountaintop. This is the official description of the play:
Taking place on April 3, 1968, THE MOUNTAINTOP is a gripping reimagining of events the night before the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an...
4 tags
“They’ve been dating for a year and a half now, but were best friends for a year...”
– Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger has your must read story this Sunday about Eric LeGrand.
2 tags
The #OWS Narrative, Sort Of
Exactly two weeks ago, as the headlines of the Brooklyn Bridge arrests trickled into the mainstream, I wondered how Occupy Wall Street would capitalize on the spotlight. Where would they go next, and how would the proverbial dominoes begin to fall, spreading the movement from city to city? On which stoop would the narrative perch itself?
(For clarity, as I mentioned in the first post, I’m...
4 tags
“‘I mean, it’s easy to go out and shoot a beautiful sunset or a beautiful...”
– Grilled Chicken, That Temperamental Star by David Segal
2 tags
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m...”
– Steve Jobs (via quote-book)
Read this. Love this. Live this.
(via stackmack)
4 tags
“‘It’s been great,’ he says.”
– Gary Smith manages one graf - in the fourth to last graf no less - of Cliff Lee quotes in an eight-page feature of him and the Phillies. It’s uniquely Gary Smith, and shouldn’t be attempted by even the most seasoned (sports) journalists.
2 tags
Protestors, Police and Communications
Through a communications lens, it’s interesting to watch the Occupy Wall Street Protests (OWSP) develop in real time. Supposedly inspired by Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring, which was itself jolted by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation, he the martyr who doused himself in flames to defend what was left of his dignity, the OWSP by all accounts is a belated reaction to the interminable...
2 tags
“Paris is so very beautiful that it satisfies something in you that is always...”
– The Hunt for Hemingway by A. Scott Berg
September 2011
7 posts
4 tags
7 tags
2 tags
“My mother, Frances Junod, was not just a mother, not just a mom. She was a dame....”
– My Mom Couldn’t Cook by Tom Junod
2 tags
“…except that of course in the end writing is the same as wearing clothes:...”
– My Father’s Fashion Tips by Tom Junod
2 tags
5 tags
The thing about anniversaries, particularly this...
One thing you learn in journalism school is that the media loves an anniversary. It’s an easy pitch, with familiar plot lines, characters, story arcs, statistics, etc. Great (re: tragic) stories are rewound, fast-forwarded, paused, contemplated, and dissected. Slide shows of pictures then and now, past and present roller coaster through history. Broadcast, both TV and radio, film footage...
3 tags
“His father’s nostrils flared. One eyebrow rose slightly. ‘If you can’t...”
– Town of Cats by Haruki Murakami
August 2011
7 posts
3 tags
