Monday Medley

What we read while tripping over the power cord at the Superdome…

• There was some sort of football game last night, though it was interrupted by a blackout. There was some fuss about the coaches and Ray Lewis, but frankly we were more interested in the oral history of the Super Bowl Shuffle.

• For the second time this postseason, Dan LeBatard lowers the hammer on the NFL — this time on the slippery morality of those who analyze it.

• The best Super Bowl photos of all-time.

• Yeah, it’s baseball season now.

• Ed Koch, the controversial former mayor of New York City, died last week at the age of 88. Eerily, it was on the eve of a new documentary about his life.

• Another great interview with George Saunders.

• The series finale of 30 Rock aired last week, and was one of the most well-received series finales of all-time. Of course, the show has always inspired awe in critics. In other TV news, Lorrie Moore analyzed the highs and lows of Homeland.

• On understanding introverts (a subject Josh tackled back in 2009).

• Is the future of education really online?

• The past, present, and future of drones.

• The evolution of the NRA.

• In defense of public nudity.

• Does Dr. Oz do no harm?

• The Boy Meets World spinoff is official!

Monday Medley

What we read while everyone misremembered Mary Shelley’s book…

• Last week was the foreign policy debate, which spent a total of about one minute discussing the devastating secret drone program. When pressed, an Obama spokesman offered this defense of killing an American teenager. Good thing the “assassination czar” is so “priest-like.” On the other side, Robert Wright argues that Mitt Romney is more likely to start a war, and Stephen Walt analyzes the “genius” of neoconservatism.

• Is Homeland unfair to Muslims and Arabs?

• In other election news (sorry, but only 8 more days!), President Obama sat down with Rolling Stone, and Matt Taibbi responded to some of his points. Ezra Klein called Obamacare the most important issue in the election. Time wonders why climate change has essentially disappeared as an issue. And is Ron Paul the future of the American left? Finally, Mitt Romney’s homophobic past, and his differences from Mormon’s early socialist history.

• Stephen Colbert’s Playboy interview.

• Joe Posnanski on the artistry of Bob Costas.

• A touching, personal defense of euthanasia.

• Where did the myth of voter-fraud come from?

• Sexy/sexist Halloween costumes.

Monday Medley

What we read while getting snubbed for the All-Star Game….

• At the risk of blasphemy, this Wells Tower profile of male porn star James Deen might be even better than David Foster Wallace’s dispatch from the AVN Awards.

• The New York Times looks at last weekend’s Del Close Marathon.

• Bill Murray is awesome. But we all knew that.

• Another Wall Street scandal, this one over LIBOR (whatever that means). Who might have suffered from this one? And is there any way to fix the culture of Wall Street? Meanwhile, the return of debtors’ prisons.

• Speaking of which, does money make people less moral?

• Rolling Stone profiled Rachel Maddow.

• A writer reacts to an inaccurate negative review of his book.

• The story of Anonymous.

• A review of America on its birthday.

• What’s James Murphy up to these days?

• We don’t want this to come off as fanfaronade, but you’re probably going to be gorgonized by this list.

• It turns out milk really was a bad choice…

Monday Medley

What we read while accidentally scoring a game-winning touchdown…

• Ken Jennings broke down the 10 best Super Bowls for trivia fans.

• In preparation for Facebook’s upcoming IPO (which will make millionaires out of some unexpected people), Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter declaring the company’s mission statement. But what does Facebook actually sell?

• Two excellent but sad magazine pieces on suicide amongst gay teens: Rolling Stone tells the story of one small town’s “war” on gay teens, while Ian Parker of The New Yorker dispels a lot of the myths surrounding the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi in this in-depth story. The lesson: Suicide is more complicated than most people think.

• Frank Rich analyzes Mitt Romney’s strange emptiness (though this story certainly makes him seem human, and even admirable). Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich hates Muslims.

• This week in Tales of the American Police State…

• Bryan Caplan’s opening statement on how deserving the poor are…

• What’s the deal with Lana Del Rey? Why does everyone hate her (except for Whitney Cummings)? Is she terrible, underrated, or just boringly mediocre? If she’s making Pitchfork angry, she’s probably a force for good…

• Some interesting, if expected, findingson male-female attractiveness differentials.

Why Is Matt Taibbi So Obsessed With Campaign Contributions?

I should start this off by saying that I like Matt Taibbi. His coverage of the financial crisis and other political corruption often delves into issues ignored by most media outlets, and his acerbic wit makes for fun reading. Nevertheless, he often fixates on the wrong aspect of the scandal he’s uncovering, and that usually involves focusing on campaign contributions.

In his blog post about the Iowa caucuses, Taibbi yammers on about how contributions corrupt the campaigning process:

“[T]he ugly reality, as Dylan Ratigan continually points out, is that the candidate who raises the most money wins an astonishing 94% of the time in America.

“That damning statistic just confirms what everyone who spends any time on the campaign trail knows, which is that the presidential race is not at all about ideas, but entirely about raising money.”

This is so logically porous that it hardly needs explaining (but that won’t stop me).

Monday Medley

What we read while rioting in Happy Valley, resigning in Italy, and, um, what’s the third one?

• The story coming out of Penn State is one of the worst we’ve seen in sports in a long time. We’ve read a multitude of takes on former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s abuse and the University’s oversight. Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg Patriot-News has spearheaded the coverage with the even hand so often lacking in the media these days. The paper overall has done a tremendous job in exposing the story and seeing it through to its climax over the last week.

• While ESPN has drawn its share of criticism for being late to the story, its secondary platforms have had a strong week. Jane Leavy’s introspective look at the ramifications of abuse is one of the best things we’ve read on Grantland. Michael Weinreb, a Penn State alum, also provided insight into the culture at State College on Grantland. Luke Cyphers, writing for ESPNW, wisely connected PSU’s oversight to a similar case with former women’s basketball coach Rene Portland at the school.

• NPI favorite Joe Posnanski finds himself in an awkward position, having moved to State College this fall to write his biography of Joe Paterno. Posnanski quasi-defends the coach at SI.

• Jonathan Lethem v. James Wood: It’s a Literary Battle!

• Malcolm Gladwell tries to figure out what made Steve Jobs so special.

• The passing of boxing legend Joe Frazier gives us a chance to link to two terrific SI profiles: Mark Kram’s in the wake of the Thrilla in Manila and William Nack’s retrospective on Frazier’s rivalry with Muhammad Ali two decades after it ended.

• John S and Tim’s inaugural Double Bonus podcast for the 2011-2012 season did not, unfortunately, discuss Storm Clonch or Dundrecous Nelson.

• Speaking of college basketball, we should find ways to play more games on ships.

• Rolling Stone details how the GOP became the party of the rich.

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 Oprah commenced Phase Two…

• Bob Dylan celebrated his 70th birthday last week, and John S wasn’t the only one to mark the occasion. The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and American Songwriter were among those to rank his best songs. Time also included a list of his worst. The Independent listed 70 reasons why Dylan is the most important figure in all of pop culture. All Things Considered even examined Dylan’s role in legal writings.

• On the more depressing side of the music front, Gil Scott-Heron, the “godfather of rap,” died. Known mostly for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” (and now, for young folk, for being sampled by Kanye West) Heron was a prolific artist of all sorts despite problems with drug addiction noted in Alec Wilkinson’s profile of him last year.

• Jeffrey Toobin tries to pinpoint Fred Wilpon’s role in Bernie Madoff’s theft and manages to get Wilpon to criticize all of his star players in the process. Tom Verducci, on the other hand, manages to get Wilpon to discuss how much he’s going to cut the team’s payroll. Across town, Jorge Posada’s recent antics don’t change his place among the greatest catchers ever (something John S highlighted last year). And David Cone talks about his love of advanced statistics.
• Tyler Cowen continues to be the man of hour, getting a glowing profile in this week’s Business Week.
• Do conjoined twins share a mind? There is video demonstrating that they do. While the conjoined twins’ parents were faced with a challenge, another set of parents created their own challenge by choosing to raise their child genderless.

• Stop blaming Facebook for your online behavior… and start spelling your status updates correctly.

• Wright Thompson tries to get to the bottom of Harvey Updyke, the man who may or may not (well, he almost certainly did) have poisoned the Toomer’s Corner oak trees at Auburn. L. Jon Wertheim takes a look into the sordid legacy of Tiki Barber, including the best Anne Frank reference since Arrested Development went off the air.

• How accurately does Parks and Recreation portray small-town politics, and (in the comments section of aforelinked article), does it matter? Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler gives Harvard’s 2011 Class Day Speech mentioning that Boston College (her alma mater) is the Harvard of Boston.

• Lester Freamon as Othello and Jimmy McNulty as Iago? Sign us up, even if it does require a Transatlantic flight.

Monday Medley

What we read while they got really excited for the Pro Bowl in Cairo…

• Man, how about that Pro Bowl?! Almost makes Super Bowl Sunday look anticlimactic, huh? Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders has been helping the hype over at Hulu, where he has been counting down the 10 Greatest Super Bowls of All Time. Meanwhile, Ben McGrath wonders if football has a future, Rohan Cruyff takes a different approach to pace in the NBA, and The Atlantic puts forth another curious (in a bad way) offering with James Parker’s amateur exploration of SportsCenter.

• We just discovered Bob Bender’s Press Box Daily, which is a must-read for those interested in sports broadcasting. Bender breaks down the calls of games’ biggest plays from various announcing crews earnestly and articulately–providing video and audio along the way. Some highlights include his ode to the music of WFAN and his analysis of what makes Kevin Harlan such a good radio announcer.

• Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, breaks down the papers dealings with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange last year. Assange, predictably, comes off a little weird.

• Bryan Caplan (who is now on Twitter) argues that there’s a difference between formal and informal Rand.

• A dead spot on a tennis court. Strange.

• It’s been 17 years since this very sad interview Rolling Stone interview with Kurt Cobain, in which he declared that he’d “never been happier in his life” less than three months before killing himself.

• Atul Gawande does more excellent reporting about the cost of health care.

• President Obama has shaken up his staff, presumably to help Win the Future.

• The Mets may carry on the Civil Rights Movement legacy.

• Kevin Smith is really just a fat, male Sarah Palin…

• …and speaking of Sarah Palin, Louis C.K. talks about his infamous tweets about the former V.P. candidate (man, comedians love making sex jokes about her), among other things, in this interview with HitFix.

Monday Medley

What we read while eating a goddamn snack on Revis Island:

• So what’s the state of political discourse in the week after the tragedy in Tucson? Some want us to tone it down, while others think that’s a silly overreaction. Tom Junod at Esquire and Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone have each offered intriguing thoughts on the debate about debate.

• Less seems to be more in football announcing.

• Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary last week.

• CalTech: In a class by itself? Speaking of intelligence, Jeopardy may have for itself a perpetual winner.

• Only one of us still occasionally puts two spaces after a period. It’s such an editing hassle.

• Roger Ebert’s best documentaries of 2010.

• What was more awkward: Ricky Gervais’ monologue at last night’s Golden Globes, or Bill Murray’s speech to Sofia Coppola at the NBR awards?

• Shake Shack’s different locations are compared by Serious Eats.

• Agree to disagree on this one: SplitSider on why the Arrested Development is a lousy movie AND why that’s OUR fault.

• Jill Lepore dissects America’s relationship with the Constitution.

• We don’t agree with all of their choices over at This Recording (there’s no way DFW is the White Swan), but this is obviously a great game…

• A breakdown of pretty much every funny tweet you’ll ever read.

• It may be in Spanish, but this graphic of The Simpsons‘ demise couldn’t be clearer. And as far as gifs go, they don’t get much better than Homer’s Night Out (h/t on each to Dead Homer Society, as usual).