Monday Medley

What we read while not being Mirandized…

• So, uh, not such a great week. The carnage at last Monday’s Boston Marathon, which is such a cherished event in that city, shocked the country and brought back memories of 9/11. Luckily there were countless examples of heroism in the aftermath of the tragedy, including an impressive response by Boston’s medical teams. The city went into lockdown in order to find the suspects. One was killed early Friday morning, and the other was found later that evening, capping a turbulent week for one of nation’s oldest cities.

• Of course, there were mistakes along the way, from the rush to blame Islamic radicals without any evidence, to the misidentification of “suspects” based on their nationality and skin color, to false reports from news outlets, to confusing Chechnya with the Czech Republic. Once the proper suspects were identified, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain rushed to abandon the Constitution, asserting that the Tsarnaevs should be treated as enemy combatants. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was not read his Miranda rights when arrested, with the FBI citing the “public safety” exception (despite repeated assurances from public officials that there was no more danger to the public). Emily Bazelton explains why this is so dangerous.

• Worth remembering this week: We just passed the 50th anniversary of MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

• In other sad news, Pat Summerall, the greatest play-by-play announcer in football history, passed away at the age of 82.

• Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur wrote a baseball “preview” even though the season is already three weeks old. Posnanski also dismissed the notion of “pitching to the score.”

• A very interesting look at income inequality through New York’s subway system.

• How a meeting between Dickens and Dostoevsky that never happened became a part of scholarship.

• A long conversation between Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and Eric Schmidt of Google.

• Whatever happened to Allen Iverson?

• How 37 banks turned into four big ones.

• The top 20 Quentin Tarantino food scenes.

• Sabermetrics in tee ball, or: Why Mike Tanier Is the Best.

• Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign is not feminist.

Monday Medley

What we read while disqualifying ourselves from the Masters…

• 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, opened this weekend. Roger Angell and Joe Posnanski look back at Robinson’s legacy.

• Jonah Keri breaks down last week’s Dodgers-Padres brawl.

• McClatchy reports on the Obama Administration’s use of drones against “unknown” targets, exposing the lies the CIA and White House officials have told the public.

• A report on the OCC’s foreclosure review details the fraud behind the lackluster settlement obtained for Americans whose homes have been illegally seized by banks.

• Margaret Thatcher, the influential Prime Minister who changed Great Britain, backed apartheid, and helped support dictators all across the world, died at the age of 87.

• Also dying last week: Gus Triandos. David Simon discusses how Gus came to be mentioned on The Wire.

• A look back at Earth Day and the environmental movement.

• Atheism and Islamophobia.

• Why wasn’t the Super Mario Bros. movie a hit?

• Congress wants to protect Israel’s right to discriminate against Americans.

• The fake story of when Dickens met Dostoevsky.

• A chart of college nicknames.

Monday Medley

What we read while passing the eye test…

• March Madness is here! Yesterday was Selection Sunday, and following such a wild regular season in college basketball, people are predicting crazy things. Kansas earned a #1 seed, and Joe Posnanski wrote about what makes Bill Self great.

• A 16-year-old was shot and killed by the NYPD last week, inspiring anger and protests on the streets of Brooklyn. Outrage intensified when the autopsy revealed he had been shot seven times, including thrice in the back. The NYPD also allegedly arrested someone for criticizing stop-and-frisk. But, hey, at least New Yorkers can still drink large sodas!

• Kickstarter.com had a breakthrough, when a potential Veronica Mars movie was funded by fans on the site in less than one day. Some criticized it as “charity” for movie studios, but others see it as a hopeful sign of the future of movies. Series creator Rob Thomas is just happy to get to make his movie.

• Seinfeld vs. The Simpsons: The ultimate sitcom showdown.

• Rob Portman, who was almost Mitt Romney’s running mate last year, came out as a proponent of gay marriage last week, after announcing that his son is gay. Some called his move selfish, since he only did when it affected his own family.

• What was the new Pope’s role in Argentina’s Dirty War?

• Jack Kerouac: Sportswriter.

• Get ready for the most depressing 10 year anniversary ever.

• Is solitary confinement worse than death?

• Brandon McCarthy believes in chemistry.

Monday Medley

What we read while not searching for sugarman . . . 

• Thursday would have been David Foster Wallace’s 51st birthday. Here are 15 of his greatest quotes.

• Steven Brill’s excellent article on why health care is so expensive. Maybe Watson, the Jeopardy!-winning robot, can help.

• Joe Posnanski on the rise and fall of A-Rod. Meanwhile, the MLB has opened its vault.

• Why don’t point guards win Player of the Year? And can a Division II coach in West Virginia fix college basketball’s scoring problem?

• Yet another backdoor bank bailout. Also, the big banks’ real problem.

• Bradley Manning has now been in jail for more than 1,000 days, many of them in solitary confinement, which now even George Will is against.

• Why you need a college degree to sort files.

• A revealing story on the science of junk food.

• Louis C.K. and Nikolai Gogol.

• On suicide and gay porn.

• Reclining on an airplane: Evil or monstrously evil?

• The best places with books.

Monday Medley

What we read while blood doping with Lennay Kekua…

• So Deadspin broke the biggest sports story of 2013, by outing the nonexistence of Mani Te’o's girlfriend. The story got weirder and weirder as Te’o's complicity came under scrutiny, though he denies being anything but a victim.

• In other sports revelations, Lance Armstrong finally admitted using PEDs and blood doping. His interview with Oprah only made people angrier, though, as he failed to show contrition for destroying lives for sake of his lie.

• Even more sad sports news, as baseball lost two legends: Earl Weaver (of the famously profane “Manager’s Corner”) and Stan “The Man” Musial. Joe Posnanski, who profiled Musial a few years ago, remembered The Man, whose statistics are still amazing.

• Robert F. Chew, who played Proposition Joe on The Wire, also passed away last week.

• Tom Junod with a fascinating look at injuries in the NFL.

• It’s been over a week since the death of Aaron Swartz, but people are still seeing the case as an example of prosecutorial overreach and outright abuse of power. The career of Carmen Ortiz is being examined, as well as the powers generally given to prosecutors.

• Facebook introduced a search tool.

• David Remnick with a frightening look at the religious right in Israel.

• On student debt.

Monday Medley

What we read while building our own Death Star in the private sector…

• Aaron Swartz, an Internet pioneer and activist, died this weekend at the age of 26. Though the causes were many, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Swartz was the target of a prolonged federal prosecution that some have called “bullying” in the name of intellectual property and emblematic of a broken criminal justice system. Swartz’s heroism has inspired many to combat the “intellectual property” racket.

• For the first time since 1996, no players were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame this year. You’re not going to believe this, but Joe Posnanski had a lot to say about the shutout. But the best analysis of the vote was probably Jonah Keri’s at Grantland.

• Dan LeBatard and Jason Taylor team up to make you feel awful about enjoying the weekend’s NFL action.

• What happens when you cast Lindsay Lohan in your movie?

• With the Golden Globes last night and the Academy Award nominations now out, the debate over the morality of Zero Dark Thirty has resurfaced. Some are comparing it to Argo (besides John S, who did that last month).

• A conversation between George Saunders and his editor.

• Marc Maron goes over his favorite episodes of his podcast.

• In other comedy news, the cast of Arrested Development reunited to talk about the new episodes.

• Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote a…something…for New York last week. It has, predictably, generated some reaction. But what would Hannah Horvath think of it?

• The complicated questions behind imprisoning pedophiles.

• Remember Watson, the computer that dominated Jeopardy a couple years ago? Well, apparently he still does not get slang.

• On Mike Francesa.

• Where the characters from Full House would be today.

Monday Medley

What we read while the world ended and started up again…

• Jerry Seinfeld talks about the state of his life and career. In other stand up comedy news, Tig Notaro talks about how surviving cancer has changed her.

• Is the way to deal with gun violence to go after gun culture and the firearms industry?

• John Branch and The New York Times upped the ante on the digital presentation of stories.

• Even the CIA is worried about how Zero Dark Thirty portrays torture.

• This week in oral histories: The writers behind Fire Joe Morgan sat down to discuss the blog’s inception and evolution.

• Joe Posnanski on redoing the Hall of Fame.

• Why did two South Carolina football alums commit suicide?

• Forget TIME: Nate Silver is Out‘s person of the year.

• David Chase looks back at the series finale of The Sopranos.

• After all these years, we finally know who Gossip Girl is.

• The entertaining Richard Deitsch hands out his sports media awards.

Monday Medley

What we read after knocking out Manny Pacquiao…

• Some great lists of the year’s best photographs, as well as an illustrated deck of cards for The Wire characters.

• The leaked audio of Fox News’ Kathleen McFarland talking to David Petraeus last year is sickening and revealing.

• Judd Apatow edited the first comedy issue of Vanity Fair, which featured, among other things, this oral history of Freaks and Geeks.

• The ongoing persecution of Bradley Manning continues, but most of the media, including The New York Times which benefited from his leaks, is still ignoring him.

• Joe Posnanski on breaking down the baseball Hall of Fame. Also, Will Leitch on Bob Costas.

• Everything you ever wanted to know about New York City candy shops.

• The militarization of America’s police forces, and some moral questions about the military itself.

• What happened to Google Reader?

• Why significant credit card bonuses are here to stay.

• Noam Chomsky celebrated his birthday this weekend.

• Why the fiscal cliff doesn’t really matter.

• Jay-Z on the subway.

• The worst free throw of all time.

Monday Medley

What we read while deleting our emails from David Petraeus…

• Joe Posnanski tackled last week’s MLB awards, from Rookie of the Year, to Manager of the Year, to the Cy Young, to the polarizing MVP debate, which divided the nation.

• Israel spent the week bombing the Gaza Strip after an escalation in rockets from Hamas, though it’s hard to tell who initiated the fighting. Some say Netanyahu’s motives are political, while others insist he’s simply misguided. Of course, the human toll is tragic as civilians and even the press are caught in the middle. But at least it’s making for some great social media fodder!

• Pete Wells penned the restaurant review of the year.  Language Log uses a review of the review to talk about misnegation.

• How sticky are toilet preferences?

• The incoherence of defending drone strikes.

• Why do teachers quit?

• The Petraeus scandal is having ramifications for the growing surveillance state as people question the legitimacy of the FBI’s intrusion.

• A history of Nintendo controllers.

• Man, this North Carolina academic scandal is getting so ugly, some of those players should start enrolling at Western Oklahoma State College.

• D.T. Max on a new collection of David Foster Wallace nonfiction.

• In case you still felt good about ESPN’s, ahem, journalism…

• Life as a New York Times trend story…

• Why marrying Jerramy Stevens was probably not Hope Solo’s best idea.

Monday Medley

What we read while waiting in line for gas…

• So, there was some kind of storm last week. Hurricane Sandy made landfall last Monday, cutting off power to millions along the East Coast and killing over 100 people. New York City and New Jersey were hit the hardest, as public transportation was down for days and is still not fully operational. Images from the storm were harrowing, including these from Coney Island and two different amusement park rides caught in the water. Power in lower Manhattan was gone for days, leaving it a kind of ghost town. And, of course, the storm left behind stories of tragedy, but also amazing stories of survival.

• Of course, in the wake of the storm, there were other concerns: What was the role of global warming in the hurricane? Will any politicians, besides NYC Mayor Bloomberg that is, talk about the issue now? What is the proper role of FEMA? Has Occupy Wall Street outperformed the Red Cross in its recovery efforts? Will local businesses recover or sink in debt? How can New Yorkers get gas? How long with the recovery last? How could the flooding have been prevented? Did Twitter spread false information or not? Is this a victory for “Big Government”? Will people need to use vacation days if they work for James Dolan? How did New York’s talk shows go on? And what happened to all of New York City’s rats?!

• New Jersey’s own Star-Ledger delivered remarkable covers throughout the week.

• “By midnight, the worst is over. By dawn, it is visible.”

• Now for some non-Sandy stuff: Louis C.K. hosted Saturday Night Live!

• Joe Posnanski on the baseball playoffs.

• Disney bought LucasFilm and announced plans for a new Star Wars movie. Here’s an old look at the original film. At least some good will come out of it…

• Chris Hedges endorsed Jill Stein for President.

• Will Leitch endorsed the Knicks.

• The government appears to be winging it at Guantanamo Bay.

• Did the press cover up important facts about Benghazi?

• Will college football decide tomorrow’s election?