Monday Medley

What we read while kind of wishing we had at least a little volcanic ash to gaze at above:

• We’re big David Foster Wallace fans at NPI. So, naturally this hyerplinked list of every word that Wallace circled in his American Heritage Dictionary fascinated us.

• The close of the NBA’s regular season meant the close of the Nets’ time in Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center. David Roth of The Awl takes a look back on the team’s legacy by the swamp–which was thankfully never mired by a name change.

• Policy debate (that is, college and high school policy debate, not the concept generally) is ridiculous, but it’s getting greener!

• NPI paid very close attention to Conan O’Brien’s messy divorce from NBC back in January. Well, instead of going to Fox as everyone expected, Coco got a deal with TBS. Alan Sepinwall explains why that was the smart move.

• Whenever the one of us who has the Canadian general interest magazine, The Walrus (slogan: “Canada’s best magazne”), in his Google Reader wonders why he still has it in his Google Reader, it comes out with the feature on Toronto rapper and one-time Degrassi star, Aubrey Graham, better known as Drake. The article also dives into the history of Canadian rap (there’s a Snow reference!) and the changing face of rap as a genre. And it’s Tim, by the way. He’s the one with The Walrus in his Google Reader.

• Two quickies: Lost spin-off ideas and a breakdown of every Nicholas Sparks movie ever.

• A campaign against NPI’s beloved Strunk and White has begun! John S reviewed The Elements of Style last summer while Tim once divulged that William Strunk was, at one point, a principal character in his abandoned novel.

• On the topic of grammar, there’s plenty of miscues among the “40 Dumbest Tax Day Signs.” Our personal favorite is No. 2; nothing’s dumber than putting an apostrophe 20 letters before it’s supposed to be.

• We’re still not letting go of Duke’s 61-59 triumph over Butler two weeks ago in the National Championship. What-if Sports ranked this year’s Blue Devils 20th among the last 25 champions. Don’t cry, though; the ’01 Devils top the list by a wide margin, just like Tim said back in December.

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