Monday Medley

What Drunk Nate Silver told us we were going to read…

• So, President Obama won again. Some conservatives are taking it pretty bad, but there’s one group even more upset…

• How do maps affect our understanding of the electorate? Are there better ways to visualize American voting patterns? And will Republicans ever win again?

• Nate Silver concludes Gallup sucked this election, among other things.  Oh, and he used to have a blog about Chicago burritos.

• What happened to that other ambitious young black politician from Chicago?

• Ben Montogomery (perhaps better known as @gangrey) goes in-depth on the Florida A&M hazing scandal.

• Sports Illustrated‘s Top 100 Sports Photos of all-time. (We hope that’s not an actual ranking, because otherwise, prepare to be disappointed.)

• New York examines the slippery slope of the Asperger’s spectrum (including shots at NPI fave Tyler Cowen!), dives in on Jonah Lehrer, and sits down with Oliver Sacks.

• We’d say at least 31 of these apply to us, collectively.

• The winner of the contest for the stupidest fake yet convincing prescriptive rule of English is . . .

• David Petraeus, every reporter’s favorite general, was forced to resign when his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was exposed. The reverent media mourned his loss, but how did the cult of Petraeus start in the first place? Meanwhile, Chuck Klosterman may have played a crucial role in the Broadwell-Petraeus affair.

• An interview with Maurice Sendak.

Monday Medley

What we read while jokingly telling Billy Donovan he outcoached us:

• Some absolute gangbusters college basketball journalism in the wake of a riveting weekend (and this is before seeing what the scribes have to say about VCU). The best of the bunch might be Luke Winn’s behind-the-scenes look at Butler, which includes yet another quote that makes everyone — us included — swoon over Brad Stevens: “Stevens stood on the court on Saturday night and someone asked him if what the Bulldogs just accomplished was unbelievable. ‘Believable is a better term,’ he said. ‘It’s a more positive term, it makes you live life a little bit better, it makes you a bit more thankful for the opportunities and take advantage of them.’”

• We also really liked Bob Kravitz’s take on the Bulldogs at the Indy Star and Les Carpenter’s at Rivals.com.

• This piece on Bill Self’s likability may not be welcome in Lawrence anytime soon.

• Kyle Whelliston takes down the RPI! The fight is not lost! (We wonder if Kyle’s head is going to explode with a mid-major national semifinal on Saturday.)

• A friend of the blog over at The Sports Angle bids farewell to Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith far more eloquently than we can…at least at this point. Meanwhile, we assume that Duke only lost to Arizona on Thursday so Coach K could end the season on a nice round number…

• Nice writeup of Tim’s favorite basketball stats hound, Ken Pomeroy.

• Bryan Caplan defends the deserving-undeserving poor distinction.

• We forget if we gave the official thumbs-up to Quickish already, but if not, here it is. Best thing to have open during Tourney games or really any sporting event.

• What we’ve all been waiting for: an Asperger’s comedy troupe!

• The NY Times looks at the styles of David Stern and Roger Goodell, and why Stern will win his lockout and Goodell won’t. More good stuff on the NFL lockout from, of all places, the literary magazine n + 1.

• We read stuff not about sports, too! We loved The Hooded Utilitarian‘s Victorian take on The Wire, although you could’ve probably seen that coming.

• Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a new show, The Book of Mormon, opening on Broadway. While some will certainly be offended, the South Park duo has apparently mellowed out over the years.

• Remarkable first-hand account of being trapped in Libya from a quartet of Times journalists.

• Will Leitch tries to cheer up Josh and Tim.

• Trivia question: Who died first, Elizabeth Taylor or the author of her obituary?