John Perry Barlow, Accountancy, Zimbabwe, Jackets, Gangsters
My Trip With John Perry Barlow
James McEnteer | Salon | 2nd June 2018
A season spent with the Grateful Dead lyricist in his charmed, selfish, monied, ambitious and destructive youth. “He would rub shoulders with the famous, become a Harvard Fellow and TED talker, divorce and find true love and generally morph into the legend he had always wanted to become. Though Barlow and I survived our time together and our self-imposed disorientation, others may have paid dearly for our careless pleasures. And for that, and that only, I am sorry beyond words” (3,550 words)
The Scandal Of Accountancy
Richard Brooks | Guardian | 29th May 2018
The Big Four global accounting firms audit 97 percent of US public companies and all the top 100 British companies. They take billions from the companies they are supposed to hold to account, while rarely suffering even for their most gigantic errors — among them, giving the world’s banks a clean bill of health before the 2008 crash. Their declared priority is profit. “Exposing false accounting, fraud, tax evasion and risks to economies – everything that society might want – does not feature” (3,400 words)
We Were Brothers
Alex Magaisa | Saturday Read | 3rd June 2018
Memories of growing up in a Zimbabwean village. “Our cattle were very special to us and we had a special relationship with them. We took pleasure in giving new calves names. Bantom, Skeneri, Hwerifandi, Dhongeri, Charuweki, Mereki, Super, Bhoferi, and many more. Some had belonged to previous cattle and were passed on. We had Africa, which honoured the continent. We gave the name British to one ox, but my grandfather would have none of it” (3,010 words)
Michael Cohen’s Jackets
Alexander Freeling | Vestoj | 3rd June 2018
How to dress like a wise guy. Choose a Neapolitan tailor. It shows. “While Northern Italian makers favour the clean, structured suits typical of business wear, Neapolitan makers are noticeably different: Softer shoulders; tighter, more aggressive cuts; louder patterns. These are jackets for the southern heat, but also jackets in which you could throw a punch. Jackets for lawyers who suggest to adversaries that they tread ‘very f—ing lightly’, jackets that hug the shoulder and biceps” (1,200 words)
A Vor Never Sleeps
Garrett Graff | Longreads | 4th June 2018
The life and times of a Russian racketeer in Brighton Beach. “Shulaya’s was a complex and violent enterprise with operations in at least six states. Like many successful New York executives he lived in the suburbs and commuted to his office in the city. He collected gambling and extortion proceeds, arranged bribes, and hacked slot machines. When someone paid an insufficient ‘tribute’, Shulaya called in a Georgian boxer whose career record stood at 22 knockouts” (5,080 words)
Video of the day Britain In The 1990s
What to expect:
Philomena Cunk recaps a decade of British history in three minutes. Blair, Blur, and the Peebles Princess (3’14”)
Thought for the day
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything
Mark Twain
Podcast Race And Food | The Dave Chang Show
David Chang talks about race, culture and food, with particular reference to MSG (PG-13 for language)
(31m 30s)