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From the Kennedy Center, @Cloris_Leachman twitpics a photo with...

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:52:45 -0400

From the Kennedy Center, @Cloris_Leachman twitpics a photo with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and our day is made.

Longreads Guest Pick: Baxter Holmes on 'The Prophets of Oak Ridge'

Sat, 04 May 2013 16:41:00 -0400

Baxter covers the Celtics for The Boston Globe, which he joined in 2013 after spending three and a half years as a sports reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. He’s a proud Oklahoman from a no-stoplight town where humans are outnumbered by cow and buffalo:

“A nun. A super-secure nuclear-weapons facility. A break-in. Click-bait, all of that. All ingredients succinct enough for an enticing tweet, which these days count. But Dan Zak, one of the best in this racket, has far more than a wild premise; he also wrote the hell out of his piece, ‘The Prophets of Oak Ridge,’ in the Washington Post. It’s my favorite longread of the week. Exquisite reporting, beautiful pacing (and writing), but no overwriting—a key. The online layout is ‘Snow Fall’ sexy, and the illustrations set it apart. The story itself bounces chronologically off their suspenseful B&E, keeping you in real time while divulging just enough history—but not enough to bore you. Some stories are as fulfilling as a top-dollar steak, medium rare, with nice fixings on the side. This is one of them. (But no spoilers.) Well done, Zak. You took a gripping narrative and turned it topical by showing how much the U.S. doles out per year on nuclear weapons. You also made me care about these servants of God, especially Sister Megan. I now give a damn about their trial. In all, this is newspapers at their finest. Long live print—and print will live on with stories like this.”

•••

What are you reading (and loving)? Tell us.

"For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert?..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 19:02:23 -0400

“For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in ‘The Corrections’? Any of the characters in ‘Infinite Jest’? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t ‘is this a potential friend for me?’ but ‘is this character alive?’”

- novelist Claire Messud, when asked by Publisher’s Weekly if she would want to be friends with the “unbearably grim” main character of her new book.

papermag: Yes, yes, we do. We heard Chickpeas is great in...

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:56:48 -0400

papermag:

Yes, yes, we do.

We heard Chickpeas is great in this.

Longreads: Behind the Longreads: Dan Zak on the Nun and the Nukes

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:03:12 -0400

Longreads: Behind the Longreads: Dan Zak on the Nun and the Nukes :

longreads:

We asked Washington Post reporter Dan Zak how he stumbled upon “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” Here’s his account:

“This story happened because a generous colleague, Dana Priest, pitched it downstairs to my area of the newsroom. She had finished a series on the country’s aging nuclear…

No, Dan does not wear a tux to work every day.

That one time an 82-year-old nun broke into a nuclear facility...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:42:00 -0400

That one time an 82-year-old nun broke into a nuclear facility in Tennessee.

Illustrations by Jeffrey Smith

Please watch this gorgeous video of a washcloth being wrung out...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:02:15 -0400

Please watch this gorgeous video of a washcloth being wrung out in space.

Dive in to the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend. (Which...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:12:11 -0400

Dive in to the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend. (Which aint’ over yet.)

The question 'Who should run for president in 2016?' was posed by New York magazine at a White House Correspondents' Dinner pre-party yesterday...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:42:04 -0400

Amy Poehler: Prince.
Brad Hall: That’s a great answer.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: And Sly and the Family Stone.
Hall: The Family Stone would be the VP.
Louis-Dreyfus: That would be good.
New York magazine: The Family Stone would be the cabinet, Sly would be the VP.
Poehler: You know, with Prince and Sly and the Family Stone, wouldn't we get more done around here?
Hall: Man. That is a funky field right there.
Louis-Dreyfus: You would definitely get funky with it. That’s for sure.
Poehler: Whoever runs, that should be their motto. Whoever runs, it should be, "Let’s get funky with it."
Louis-Dreyfus: Oh my God. Wouldn't that be so good?
Poehler: That would be so good no matter who it is.
Louis-Dreyfus: You would give all your life savings to that campaign.
Poehler: If a candidate was like, “Come on guys: Let’s get funky with it.”
New York magazine: Maybe you should do it.
Louis-Dreyfus: All right, should those two candidates decide to run, Amy and I are going to run their campaign, or we’ll be a part of the branding of the campaign.
Poehler: We’ll be like Peaches and uh...
Louis-Dreyfus: Diamond and Pearl.
Hall: Peaches and Herb. Oh no, sorry.
Poehler: Peaches and Cream! The dancers that used to perform with Prince.
Louis-Dreyfus: That’s right. [Ed. note: It was Diamond and Pearl.]
Poehler: Prince always has some beautiful, like, 16-year-old dancers.
Louis-Dreyfus: We’re not 16, but we could totally dance with him, you know, while he campaigns.
Poehler: Well, it’s going to be a different kind of dancing. It has to be serious dancing. Because it’s a political campaign.
Louis-Dreyfus: There are issues and we feel strongly about the issues. So it will be a serious kind of dance.
Poehler: Once again, I know Prince reads your magazine. I know he reads these little interviews. Julia and I are ready to dance behind him when he runs for president in 2016.
Louis-Dreyfus: Please take this seriously.

Thank God they’ve got my brands here.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:23:00 -0400

Thank God they’ve got my brands here.

Tilda dances for Roger.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:41:35 -0400

Tilda dances for Roger.

"Go to sleep or I will call the planes."

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:38:00 -0400

“Go to sleep or I will call the planes.”

- what some Yemeni parents say to their children, according to activist Farea al-Muslimi’s testimony before a Congressional hearing Tuesday on the use of drones.

"I refuse to beat my chest over a grief that belongs to others, or shout about how terrorists messed..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:36:00 -0400

“I refuse to beat my chest over a grief that belongs to others, or shout about how terrorists messed with the wrong city. I find no virtue in braying over the capture of a teenager whose toxic grievances, and misguided loyalties, led to such senseless ruin. It is sad, all of it. The greater sadness for me is that America feels increasingly like a nation united by spectacles of atrocity. We pay attention, and open our hearts, only when violence of a random and gaudy enough variety strikes.”

- Steve Almond in The New Republic

Photo

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:44:57 -0400

Harrison Ford curses out Chewbacca. (Have a laugh, won’t...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:50:32 -0400

Harrison Ford curses out Chewbacca.

(Have a laugh, won’t you?)

"I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:07:00 -0400

“I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.”

- Gabrielle Giffords, regarding this.

"Shame on you! Shame on you!"

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:17:00 -0400

“Shame on you! Shame on you!”

- Lori Haas, whose daughter was wounded in the April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech, and Patricia Maisch, who knocked an ammunition magazine out of the hands of Jared Loughner in Jan. 2011, to U.S. senators after they voted 54-46 to defeat an amendment on gun background checks.

jerismithready: I just fell in love with New Zealand. After...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:57:33 -0400

jerismithready:

I just fell in love with New Zealand.

After passing a marriage equality bill, the Parliament spontaneously broke into the Maori love song “Pokarekare ana.”

Lawmaking is usually messy at its best and downright grisly at its worst. When it’s beautiful, like this, it should be celebrated.

(Hat tip to @robertflorence, Scottish comedian extraordinaire, for linking the video on Twitter.)

U.S. Congressmen: Please incorporate more singing into the running of the U.S. Government.

"Every bit of Arredondo’s skin is coated with antibiotic cream. His left palm has glass in it..."

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:21:00 -0400

“Every bit of Arredondo’s skin is coated with antibiotic cream. His left palm has glass in it from when three Marines informed him that Alex was dead and he began smashing the windows of their van. His lower legs, which received the worst of the burns from when he splashed gasoline in the van and ignited it, are stained the color of cranberries. His hair, cut off in the hospital, is only now starting to grow back. His fingernails, ruined when he used his hands to claw holes in Alex’s grave for flowers, are all gone.”

- Washington Post writer David Finkel in his 2005 profile of Carlos Arredondo, who was the man in the cowboy hat at the Boston marathon yesterday.

Photo

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:06:00 -0400