Monday Medley

What we read while sexually harassing Herman Cain back…

• Two economists, including NPI-favorite Tyler Cowen, explain the NBA lockout.

• In better basketball news, Chuck Klosterman came up with a somewhat controversial list of the 50 greatest college basketball players ever.

• Friend of the blog Ben Cohen profiles previous subject of the blog (and we wish one day friend of the blog) Jon Scheyer.

• Bill Simmons and Entertainment Weekly each look back at the career arc of Eddie Murphy, who might possibly return to SNL after all these years (or maybe not).

• In other comedy news, Hannibal Buress is getting written about in the Times (as part of it’s new regular comedy column)!

• It’s about time someone explored why humans’ biggest potential foe is the octopus.

• A look back at the reign and downfall of Muammar Qaddafi.

• Mike Bloomberg’s disdain for and condescension to OWS is getting old and ridiculous.

• Another reason to dislike the Redskins.

• ESPN’s go-to SEC profiler Wright Thompson looks at one of the weekend’s big winners: Les Miles.

• Et tu, Jon Huntsman?

• Daniel Kahneman has a new book out, and William Easterly is excited about it.

• A truly disturbing story about how the Internet helped cause–and then solve–a murder.

• Finally, an awesome look at how the way we’ve followed baseball hasn’t changed as much as you’d think in the last century.

Monday Medley

What we read while admittedly forgetting…

• And then we were reminded!

• Week 1 of the NFL season, the amping up of the college football year, and the–at least to some–intriguingly tight pennant races in baseball led us to some excellent sports coverage this week. The headliner is the man who’s been making headlines for over a year now in New York, and quite frankly, we’re surprised it took even this long for Rex Ryan to land the cover of New York Times Magazine. Ryan wasn’t the only NFL coach, getting profile treatment, with Sally Jenkins tackling (get it?) Mike Shanahan in the Washington Post.

• John S wasn’t the only one writing about Boise State, with SI’s George Schroeder chronicling the Broncos’ amazing run to college football prominence and Smart Football taking a more technical approach to Chris Petersen’s high-powered (and not entirely Statue of Liberty-based) offense. BSU isn’t the only non-power crashing the party these days, of course, and Texas Monthly looks at TCU head coach Gary Patterson’s more defensive approach to football success. GQ doesn’t care which of those teams you root for; in fact, it encourages both. Michigan’s Denard Robinson gets the Heisman treatment, in photographic and verbal form.

• As for baseball, ESPN’s Tom Friend dives into the life and death of Eric Show–25 years after he gave up Pete Rose’s record-breaking hit. And friend of the blog Ben Cohen over at Deadspin analyzes Derek Jeter from the Yankee fan’s perspective–something John S has done…twice.

• Roger Ebert is bringing back At the Movies with new hosts and an expanded format. Luckily, he’ll be appearing on the new show. Meanwhile, as fans of both Ebert and food, this article obviously was appealing.

• Kate Hopkins debunks the concept of copyrighted cocktails.

• We’re not ones for promoting one-hit tumblrs, but here’s one we have enjoyed: 1001 rules for my unborn son.

• Tim revisited The Great Gatsby himself earlier this summer, but he didn’t get all righteous and write about it. He’s glad Sonya Chung at The Millions did.

• Have we mentioned before that we love Joe Posnanski? We have? Well then you could probably figure out that we loved the comment thread on this page (start at comment #5).

• Air expert Gary Leff, after the topic was broached by Tyler Cowen, discusses genuineness and flight attendants.

• God, we miss Calvin and Hobbes (well, one of us)(the one who wrote about a comic strip once).

Monday Medley

What we read while debating the plausibility of the Shroud of Turin…

• Ben Cohen, former (and possibly still?) Deadspin intern and friend of the blog solidified the latter status with his ardent yet in the end conciliatory defense of dear old Duke. Speaking of sympathetic portrayals of Duke basketball, Dana O’Neill chronicles Lance Thomas and Kyle Singler’s studies of art.

• Our favorite part of Easter (aside from Tim’s whole Jesus infatuation) has to be the Washington Post‘s “Peeps Show,” which combines our distaste for actually eating Peeps with our affection for dioramas and cultural allusions. Although, to be fair, we weren’t big fans of the winner’s source material. Speaking of films Josh didn’t like, The Millions considers Up in the Air from a literary perspective. And, speaking of Peeps, we also have a distaste for eating this Peeps creation.

• And to counter that Easter vibe…

• Josh likes attending a university where this bathroom graffiti is actually not that surprising. This university also puts a premium on economics and, speaking of which, Elinor Ostrom, this year’s Nobel Prize co-winner in Economics takes part in a very accessible and interesting interview.

• The best part of April Fools’ Day might be ThinkGeek’s fake-but-will-be-real-in-a-few-years products. Our fave this time around? The Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock: Perfect for 108-minute naps!

• You know, we’ve been waiting like five years for someone to finally try to prove Bill Simmons’ Ewing Theory by applying Braess’s Paradox to offensive possessions in basketball. About time.

• We’ve linked to David Simon profiles before, but this one centers on Sunday’s premiere of his new, New Orleans-centric show, Treme. Simon also penned an obituary for his friend and co-writer on The Wire, David Mills.

Monday Medley

What we read while pondering Meyer and Manning’s respective “leaves of absence”:

• We got on a little sportswriting bend this week, starting with good-guy-that-gets-it Mike Wise’s column on Tiger Woods, which plays off on those old “I am Tiger Woods” commercials that seem unnervingly dystopic these days (major bonus points to anyone who recognizes the kid from The Big Green on first viewing). We also enjoyed Deadspin‘s Best Best American Sports Writing of the Decade and its many links, even if we were a little upset none of us quite made the cut (Pierre’s pretty sure he’s No. 11 for his treatise on the AutoTyer). Finally, for even longer-form sportswriting, New York Magazine conducted a symposium of sorts on Bill Simmons’ recent behemoth, The Book of Basketball. Lot of interesting stuff from some diverse viewpoints.

• Some argue that the premise behind this whole Aught Lang Syne feature–that the new decade begins in 2010–is misguided. They’re wrong.

• Speaking of the Aughts, we posted on the decade’s best nonfiction, but here is a more particular account on the best food books of the decade.

• Continuing to speak of the Aughts, John S presented his songs of the decade, but Nielsen has his own ideas.

• Also on the radio, there was a bit of a controversy last week to see who would have England’s No. 1 song in the week leading up to Christmas–apparently a big deal in the UK. A grassroots campaign against “the Simon Cowell music machine” helped catapult Rage Against the Machine into the top spot. The band went on BBC 5 to discuss this victory for social justice and play the new number 1, “Killing in the Name Of.”

• A few Mondays ago, we linked to an interview with famed Russian translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. In case that didn’t slake your interviews of literary translators thirst, here’s The Mookse and the Gripes with Chris Andrews, who has done most of the translating of Roberto Bolano for New Directions Press (although NHP did not have the rights to The Savage Detectives or 2666, which Natasha Wimmer translated for Picador and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, respectively).