Monday Medley

What we read while Reagan’s ghost cleaned up the mess at UC-Davis…

• In the real darkest timeline, Community was left off of NBC’s mid-season schedule, though NBC insists the show isn’t actually cancelled. Fans of the show are panicking and taking to the Internet to express their outrage. Alison Brie even showed up on The Soup (which may actually have more viewers than Community) to hype the show. The last episode of the show bore some resemblance to this recent GQ story.

• In news from the other end of TV comedy spectrum, Arrested Development has a new home!

• An in-depth look at sex education.

• States all across the country have been coordinating with federal law enforcement and barring media access and destroying books (America truly is the land of the free…) while they shut down the Occupy Wall Street protests. There’s a decent argument that this will help the movement in the long run, but don’t tell that to the elderly women and peaceful students who’ve been getting pepper sprayed. There have been questions about the police response throughout the country. Some of the most damning footage has come from UC-Davis, where some faculty have expressed outrage and are calling for the resignation of the school chancellor. Two police officers have been placed on administrative leave.

• Meanwhile, the 1% really want to pay more taxes.

• Life pokes fun at itself with its 20 worst covers.

• The tragedy at Penn State continues to unfold, with more reactions pouring in from all sorts of perspectives, including a priest’s and a whistleblower’s. Plus, here’s the full transcript of Bob Costas’ interview with Jerry Sandusky, for which he had 15 minutes to prepare.

• On the other end of college athletics spectrum, Coach K passed Bobby Knight for the most wins in Division I college basketball.

• Roger Craig pulled off possibly the coolest move in Jeopardy history in last week’s Tournament of Champions. Esquire‘s Chris Jones breaks it all down. Jones also spent a Friday in Cambridge talking craft with Gay Talese. You won’t believe what Talese takes his notes on.

• Speaking of Alex Trebek, Matthew Weiner has a bone to pick with him. Also, an inside look at the Nielsen numbers.

Monday Medley

What we read while Boston mourned…

• Last Wednesday was possibly the greatest night in baseball history, with Boston and Atlanta finishing epic collapses with blown saves in the ninth. Nate Silver put the odds of all that happening at about one in 278 million. Bill Simmons live-blogged the night from a Boston perspective, while Joe Posnanski summed up what it all meant to baseball. Even the venerable Roger Angell was amazed…

• Meanwhile, Obama did something that was almost certainly illegal and also probably stupid.

• New York Times Magazine ran its Food and Drink issue this week, which included Michael Pollan answering interesting questions on “food mysteries”  and Tyler Cowen on how to eat decently at seemingly lousy restaurants.

• Atul Gawande wonders why coaching isn’t a more prevalent practice.

• We came across this oral history of Wet Hot American Summer a few weeks ago, but shamefully forgot to link to it until now.

• In other comedy news, NPI-favorite John Mulaney talked The A.V. Club and New York Magazine runs an oral history of the Upright Citizens Brigade.

• Chuck Klosterman breaks down the plight of a fantasy owner.

• We really hope this story isn’t an illusion…

Monday Medley

What we read while Irene thankfully didn’t affect the VMAs…

• NPI-favorite Michael Schur teamed up with The Decembrists to make a video based on the NPI-favorite Eschaton scene in NPI-favorite novel Infinite Jest by NPI-favorite writer, David Foster Wallace. NPI really enjoyed it.

• Speaking of DFW, the New York Times Magazine tried to blame him for bad blog writing.

• Steve Jobs resigned from Apple for health reasons. Whether or not you’re an official member of the cult of Jobs, there’s no denying his profound influence. This Rolling Stone interview, given during his decade-long exile from Apple, shows his intelligence and prescience. Apple, of course, is still in good hands, and new CEO Tim Cook has some great ideas…

• Miranda July has a new movie out, The Future,  which garnered a very positive review from Roger Ebert, who ranked July’s first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, as one of the best of the Aughts. New York Times Magazine had a feature on July last month.

• The New Yorker details the politics and impact of Clarence Thomas and his wife. Reason Magazine points out Jeffrey Toobin’s inconsistent position on Thomas’s influence on the Court.

• Jeffrey Sachs discusses the dishonest debate about America’s deficit.

• Is the Colbert Super PAC funny or serious? Or both?

• Joe Posnanski talks about pitchers and the MVP award, Jonah Keri tries to figure out how the Angels keep winning, and Joe DeLessio tries to figure out if Jeff Nelson ever effectively used “the old Jeff Nelson.”

• An interview with Paul Rudd.

• Inspirational posters from The Wire.

Monday Medley

What we read while dunking over a 1992 Buick LeSabre…

• John S offered his thought on the appearance of IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy! but that was before the computer built its insurmountable lead over the petty humans. Ken Jennings described what it was like to play against Watson, while others wonder what comes next for artificial intelligence (and how it can be used to boost Alex Trebek’s ratings).

• While we at NPI would never suggest putting any stock in the Grammys as arbiters of musical quality, we were pretty happy to see Arcade Fire steal the Album of the Year award from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Eminem. Predictably, though, not everyone was as excited… including a student at our alma mater.

• Radiohead tried to steal Arcade Fire’s thunder by announcing their new album last Monday, and then rushing its release by the end of the week. As fans of the biggest band in the world, we’ll take it…

• We had something witty and observant to say about Joshua Foer’s screed to the memory championships, but we forgot it…

• Who needs time capsules when you have lost wallets returned two score later?

• We question the literary interpretations made by this video game. But we definitely want to play it.

• A short interview with an NPI-favorite comedian…

• And another NPI-favorite comedian is making a splash on SNL.

• The Sports Illustrated feature curse strikes again!

Monday Medley

What we read while telling WikiLeaks they couldn’t use our server….

• Sean Wilentz reviewed Bob Dylan’s pre-Thanksgiving shows at Terminal 5 in New York, but his love of all things Dylan may have skewed the objectivity. On the other side of the spectrum,  John Jurgensen wonders if Dylan should retire.

• In other classic rock news, if you like The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter,” or just music, you should listen to this.

• John Paul Stevens was interviewed on 60 Minutes.  Even more interesting is the full transcript of his April interview with Jeffrey Rosen.

• A Chuck Klosterman profile of Jonathan Franzen? John S is literally giddy.

• Deborah Solomon’s live interview with Steve Martin had to be refunded because it was too boring. We at NPI have had our own run-ins with Ms. Solomon, but her interviews always have the potential to be delightfully uncomfortable.

• If you somehow missed it, LeBron James returned to Cleveland last week, leading many to pontificate on how his absence has affected the city and how his time in Miami is beginning.

• We don’t always read Sports Illustrated‘s longer features, but we usually find it worth our time. The latest case in point? Chris Ballard’s look at UC-Berkeley rower Jill Costello’s battle with cancer.

• To prep you for the now official BCS Championship Game, Michael Sokolove of The New York Times Magazine dives into Oregon’s point-a-minute offense while Michael Weinreb penned a guest piece for The War Eagle Reader on why it’s fine to root for Cam Newton and Auburn.

• An in-depth (if largely hypothetical) look at the NBA in the 1990s had Michael Jordan not existed, with Roger Pimentel suggesting that there may have been a few more youngsters wearing No. 22 than 23 these days.

• IFC continues its efforts to shamelessly pander to comedy nerds everywhere. Last year it began showing Arrested Development in syndication, and now, in addition to picking up The Onion News Network pilot, it has added three cult classics–The Larry Sanders Show, The Ben Stiller Show, and Mr. Show–to its lineup.

• Someone must be really excited about Broadway’s newest show (c/o here with a h/t here).

Monday Medley

What we read while changing our opinions on the morality of condoms…

• Ron Paul condemned the new airport body-scanners, but TSA insists that they are here to stay. Well, at least we know America’s airports are safe! This also presents an interesting Fourth Amendment (the second best!) question.

• Speaking of law, the New York Times ran a fascinating article that empirically establishes that Sandra Day O’Connor relied on her clerks to write opinions more than any other contemporary justice.

• LeBron James isn’t the only Akronite who hasn’t exactly reaped the benefits yet of taking his talents to South Beach. Michael Kruse delivers an interesting feature on journalist Brian Windhorst, whose career arc has mirrored that of James.

• The New Yorker tries to get some perspective on the recent late night wars by looking back at Dick Cavett. Speaking of NBC, the network unveiled its midseason schedule last week. It got at least one thing right…

• This video only proves what I’ve been saying all along: Soccer sucks.

• In a special for Sports Illustrated, Benjamin Hochman tries to answer a question everyone in Denver has been wondering these last two months: Why did Kenny McKinley choose to die? Hochman references this stunningly introspective and affecting piece by Woody Paige on his own battles with depression.

• It’s always fun when the Brits tackle masculinity.

• Not that NPI wants to feed the media’s obsession with all thing Sarah Palin, but the Times ran a story on her “inner circle.” (We draw the line at any and all links having to do with DWTS.) It recalled, of course, New York‘s previous feature on the Palin brand.

• We’re sure James Frey is none too pleased about this piece on his fiction factory. Meanwhile, this book review is OK by us. Or is that O.K.?

• When will teachers learn that yawns are involuntary?

Monday Medley

What we read while waiting for the first Chilean miner book…

• Speaking of Conan O’Brien, he had an announcement about Andy Richter’s status on his new show this week (as well as some unfortunate news about Max Weinberg). Richter talked about the new show, as well as a guest appearance of his on Will Arnett’s Running Wilde.

• The first BCS standings came out this week, and Don Borst thinks that BCS critics ought to be rooting for Boise State and TCU. Last month John S made the exact opposite argument.

• It’s posts like this that make us love Joe Posnanski (even if we sometimes disagree with him).

• Also in the world of great sports stories, ESPN breaks down the famous Fifth Down play from twenty years ago.

• In the world of not-so-great-but-not-all-that-surprising-sports-stories, a former agent details giving thousands of dollars to college athletes.

• Esquire‘s Scott Raab follows Philip Roth back to Newark, where the prodigious author says, among other things, that “life is one long BP spill.”

• A real-life version of Hans Moleman presents, “Man Getting Hit by Football.” Starring Brett Favre.

• The New York Times Magazine‘s Education Issue was a few weekends ago, but it brought back some memories of Josh and Tim’s Symposium on Handwriting (starting with Josh, on to Tim, back to Josh). One feature on the Livescribe smart pen seemed to suggest handwriting might not be dead while a second on the significance of video games in classrooms includes a teacher saying, “Handwriting? That’s a 20th-century skill.”

• Louis C.K. and Marc Maron break down their lives and careers in a two-part podcast.

• A haunting story about someone who preyed on on the suicidal and may have caused dozens of deaths. At least we know it isn’t T.I.

• Former Simpsons writer Bill Oakley has been sharing some old documents he came across via Twitter, including this early script for “$pringfield,” the first draft of the immortal luncheon between Chalmers and Skinner in “22 Short Films about Springfield” (which Tim has written, shall we say, extensively about), the original story pitch for what became “Two Bad Neighbors,” one of whom was George H.W. Bush, and finally, leftover story ideas and pitches.

• It’s officially been another year since the greatest series ever played…

Monday Medley

What we read while wondering why nobody asked us to testify before Congress…

• On the twentieth anniversary of what may be Martin Scorsese’s best film, GQ ran a fascinating oral history of the making of the Goodfellas.

• The Sporting News lists the 20 smartest professional athletes. Biggest Disappointment? Peyton Manning’s 1030 SAT Score (yes, that is supposed to demonstrate his intelligence).

• Spend more time at NPI: the Internet makes you happier.

• The only way to describe this story is “Kafkaesque”: “The next best thing to having your stuff burned…is giving it to some guy who gives it to some lady who gives it to her daughters who keep it in an apartment full of cats, right?”

• As fans of the dearly departed (gone for almost two years now) Fire Joe Morgan, we at NPI love Fire Joe Morgan Day at Deadspin. This year Ken Tremendous, dak, and Junior took down Mitch Albom, Bill Conlin, Murray Chass, Jerry Thornton, Jim Caple, David Eckstein, and, of course, Joe Morgan, as well as many, many others. They even did it for a good cause.

• The fifth season of Dexter premiered last night, so Vulture compiled a list of Dexter’s 10 greatest kills. While some at NPI had been anxiously awaiting the premiere, this news put a damper on our excitement.

• Speaking of television premieres, Dan Harmon explained all the pop culture references in last week’s premiere of Community.

• Another reason to hate the rich.

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 surviving Hurricane Earl…

• The New York Times managed to write about “Fuck You” by Cee Lo Green without ever actually using the phrase. It was a feat both mocked and praised by the less refined media. Meanwhile, Green himself released the official video for the crudely named song, to replace the text-only viral hit. (Remember Cee Lo, no one’s gonna love you more than we do.)

• The NYT Magazine tries to capture our generation. Our response? Meh.

• We’d have already bought a few of these literary posters if not for their strict “Canadian currency only” policy.

• “Just a small town girl…“

• The first TV writer who jumped the shark insists that jumping the shark was a good idea.

• Another reason to love McDonald’s.

• We don’t know about you, but we don’t care if driving slower alleviates traffic. We’re going fast anyway.

• Headline of the week, stupid teenage mistake of the week, and cutest story of the week. And can you believe this story didn’t qualify for any of those awards?

• If there were ever a reason to spend $22 on pencils, then this is it.

• We totally want a friend to move to Oregon just so we can copy this cake.

• Finally, an in-depth look at Bobblehead Doll giveaways in the Major Leagues.