Monday Medley

What we read while blindly supporting Americans we’ve never heard of…

• Would James Eagan Holmes have been stopped if he were Muslim? Some in Colorado think so. Speaking of which, the story of how the NYPD’s Muslim surveillance program was exposed.

• Colson Whitehead’s advice on how to write.

• What are the real lessons from the life and career of Steve Jobs?

• It’s articles like this — on beach volleyball — that make us want to read The Guardian for diction alone.

• Aziz Ansari talks to Pitchfork about the maturation of his comedy.

• Obamacare may exacerbate the shortage of doctors over the next decade.

• What ever happened to leisure?

• This Week in Oral History: The ’96 Olympics bombing.

• Rahm Emanuel goes after free speech in Chicago.

• One of the Too Big To Fail pioneers suggests breaking up banks. Meanwhile, the government continues to try to protect the banking industry. And speaking of Wall Street: the worst of the 1%.

• Ugly covers for great books.

• Apparently your porn habits vary by season.

I Still Hate LeBron

Nothing can make me like LeBron James. I don’t care if he is a champion now. I don’t care if he is the NBA Finals MVP. I don’t care if he put up one of the greatest playoff performances ever this year. I don’t care if he helped Shane Battier get a ring. I don’t care if he overcame the worst cramps in human history to do it. I don’t care if he’s humbler, happier, and more mature than he was two years ago. I don’t care if spends his off-season saving small children from burning buildings. Nothing can make me like him.

And yet the tide is turning in his favor. Throughout the year, fans and sportswriters seemed to be letting up on LeBron, as if the statute of limitations on detesting him had run out. Seth Davis, of Sports Illustrated, seemed to make this argument almost explicitly. And now that James finally has his ring, I suspect the intense fandom that lined up behind whichever team happened to be playing the Heat will die down a bit; it’s not as fun to root against something that’s already happened.

Monday Medley

What we read while Newt Gingrich started quoting Dragon Ball Z…

• The comedy world lost another great comic last week, when Patrice O’Neal passed away at 41. Comedians from Greg Fitzsimmons to Jon Stewart to Mike Birbiglia paid tribute to O’Neal and his comedy.

• Sports Illustrated will unveil its Sportsman of the Year this week. To be honest, our two favorite candidates have already been eliminated: Here are Tim Layden on Aaron Rodgers and David Epstein on Eric LeGrand.

• A judge finally put a stop to the SEC’s policy of settling with financial firms. Many observers were quite pleased with this development, but others wondered what Judge Rakoff’s problem was.

• In these turbulent political times, it’s nice to know that some things still have bipartisan support, specifically the military’s right to detain people, including American citizens, no matter where they are captured! The draconian National Defense Authorization Act passed with support from most Republicans and many Democrats, because we are obviously at war, all the time, with everyone.

• Jonathan Chait doesn’t think paying college athletes is feasible.

• Tim and John S have been known to argue about the BCS. Now that the title game is set, Michael Weinreb makes his case for Boise State.

• Even we at NPI (who’ve been known to wax poetic about alternative rock of the 1990s) might consider this analysis of Semisonic’s “Closing Time” a little too much…

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 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 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 asking and telling like crazy…

• The best of longform journalism in 2010. Do we need any more links this week? Oh fine, whatever.

• How cool is this? The New York Times asked several industry experts in 1931 what the world would look like in 2011; their answers are by turns enlightening and hilarious.

• It was a week of Joe Posnanski writing about pitchers, with his thoughts on Cliff Lee signing with Philadelphia, on Zack Greinke’s trade demands, and on the late Bob Feller.

• In other sports journalism news, here’s an oldie from Sports Illustrated in which Gary Smith breaks down the trials of Rickie Parker. Buzz Bissinger is cool with Cam Newton. And the Fayetteville Observer‘s Dan Wiederer unleashed a fantastic and in-depth look at Mike Krzyzewski, including a dig at K’s fascination with criticizing our old student newspaper stomping grounds. Joe Drews was right!

• 60 Minutes had a fascinating feature on superior autobiographical memory, a rare characteristic where individuals remember ordinary details from every day of their lives. Dr. James McGaugh, the neurobiologist behind the study of these individuals, has an interesting academic background.

• Mark Zuckerberg is Time‘s Person of the Year, for reasons that apparently have to do with more than the fact that he had a movie made about him this year. He seems honored. And hey, that new profile allows for some artistic creativity!

• In other award news, this man’s mantle as Christmas’ chief hatemonger has been passed on to our very own John S.

• Tyler Cowen explains the truth about income inequality. Cowen also linked to this, um, intriguing dating website profile of Julian Assange. And, making Josh ecstatic, Cowen gives an “informal audit” of the past ten issues of the New York Times Magazine’s Year in Ideas in this year’s issue.

• In the wake of Season Five of Dexter, Esquire explains how the character is the new face of American justice… or something like that.

• When Parents Text is this week’s FML.

Monday Medley

What we read while fleeing the Metrodome…

• We didn’t watch last Sunday’s Muppet-infused Simpsons episode until the middle of the week, so by the time we thought up something angry to write about it, our pals at Dead Homer Society had already hit the nail on the head. And while we’re at it, Bill Oakley on how classic episodes of the show were written.

• Watching Ben Roethlisberger get beat up in yesterday’s win over the Bengals only reinforced the point Michael Weinreb makes here.

• Bill Hancock may be a little late the party, but he’s right: The BCS works (kind of)!

• We don’t always agree with Aaron Sorkin, but we can appreciate his takedown of Sarah Palin’s publicity-stunt moose killing. In other vaguely political news, New York magazine wonders how the last decade would have played out if Al Gore had won the 2000 election.

• In political philosophical news, we present you the political philosophy of Julian Assange.

• I guess you’ll just have to settle for Celine Dion in Vegas (and miss excellent Jay Leno impressions).

• Necco’s wafers may be atrocious, but they do make at least one good food product.

• Some NPI-favorites, specifically Hannibal Buress, are featured on this list of the 10 best comedy albums of the year.

• With a title like “Why does most modern sports broadcasting suck so bad?” you knew it was only a matter of time before Colin Cowherd is mentioned. More sports: The Nieman Foundation did an interview with feature writer Michael Paterniti, which prompted Gangrey to post Paterniti’s 1999 piece on Thurman Munson. And more good, long stuff from Sports Illustrated this week, with Alan Shipnuck’s investigation into the mysterious suicide of LPGA golfer Erica Blasberg.

• If there’s one thing everybody loves about Santa, it’s creepy jokes about child molestation!

What I Like About The BCS

Playoffs? Don't talk to me about playoffs!

 

The BCS is probably the most universally reviled institution in all of sports. It is more unpopular than the Wild Card, free agency, Billy Packer, sideline reporters, in-game celebrity interviews, that weird ball the NBA introduced a few years ago, the designated hitter, Joey Crawford, blown calls by umpires, life-shortening head trauma, and even Roger Clemens.

Some of this is due to the blatant unfairness of the BCS, in that small schools from non-BCS conferences, like Boise State and TCU, are inevitably punished by the system. But this can’t account for all of the animosity towards the BCS—after all, in the latest rankings, TCU was #3 in the country. The BCS is no more unfair than, say, the absence of a salary cap in baseball, or the fact that there will be a playoff team from the NFC West this season, but it draws exponentially more ire than either of these injustices.

It seems to me that the primary reason for anti-BCS sentiment is that the principles behind the BCS are unique in the world of sports. They are so unique, in fact, that people don’t seem to even understand them.

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).