Monday Medley

What we read while being thankful for the stuff we bought on Black Friday…

• Our long national nightmare is over: Players and owners have reached a deal and the NBA will resume again on Christmas, probably! Players were so excited they took to Twitter. It should be no surprise, though, that the deal benefits the Miami Heat, the villains of the league.

• In other sports labor news, Jonah Keri is not a fan of the new MLB CBA. 

• We’ve been following the Occupy Wall Street story in the wake of the galvanizing pepper spray incidents, which Fox News, of course, tried to downplay. New York magazine tried to analyze Mayor Bloomberg’s confusing response to the protests, and The New Yorker had a great story on the movement’s origins.

• In other stories of political disillusionment, David Frum bemoans the current state of the Republican Party, while Conor Friedersdorf wonders why liberals keep making excuses for Obama.

• The recent PBS documentary on Woody Allen led Will Leitch and Tim Grierson to rank every Woody film.

• In college basketball news, the relationship between Alex Oriakhi and his coach keeps getting testier.

• Another professor analyzes the syllabi of David Foster Wallace.

Monday Medley

What we read on our 48-hour sabbatical from MSNBC…

• The long wait for Conan O’Brien’s new show ends tonight, with the premiere of Conan on TBS. Jay Leno will probably not be a guest. Speaking of Leno and late-night TV, October saw The Daily Show beat its network rivals in the ratings, while Leno fell behind Letterman. I wonder if Dick Ebersol will call Leno an “astounding failure” now.

• Zach Galifianakis, in his early years, was sort of skinny. Also, a fascinating look at Woody Allen’s early years, including his stint on Candid Camera. Erik Voss at SplitSider, meanwhile, wonders if there’s ever a justification for a comedian to steal material.

• Tim wasn’t the only one spending some time on The Simpsons‘ Treehouse of Horror. In the spirit of Tim’s top nine, IO9 had its top 10 and 11 Points did its top 11.

• Speaking of Jews, one of the “numerous future” New York Times Articles comes to life.

• So, there was an election. Post-Citizens United Narrative Failure # 1: Democrats outspent Republicans on TV ads in House Races (and possibly in everything as well). Perhaps the most redeeming aspect of election coverage is Nate Silver’s incorporation into the mainstream media. He shows how unreliable and systematically biased (towards Republicans) Rasmussen Polls were during the campaigns. Oh, and Buzz Bissinger was clearly responding to John’s argument with this tweet.

• Speaking of fraud, comedian Bruce Baum has some pretty compelling evidence that Bruce Marder and Jerry Seinfeld are unjustly failing to attribute to him co-authorship of the hilarious Letters to a Nut series.

• Joe Posnanski had an even better week than usual, with posts on the weakest World Series winners of all-time, the currently active “certain” Hall of Famers, and the late Sparky Anderson.

• Why nobody can compete with the evil behemoth that is Ticketmaster.

• Zadie Smith offers a thoughtful new entry in the rapidly growing genre of “Distinguished Person Over 30 Complaining About Social Media’s Impact On Culture And Society.”

• The CFL–you’ve got to love it.

Whatever Works Doesn’t*

*Well, it kinda does, but we couldn’t resist.

WARNING: Plot spoilers contained in this post.

Woody Allen’s Whatever Works brings him back to New York City and unites him with who may be a perfect partner-in-crime, Larry David. NPI’s amateur film critics, Tim and Josh, discuss whether it all, well, works.