Newsletter 87

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Writing Worth Reading

* [2]How Panhandlers Use Free Credit Cards
Jim Rankin | Star | 28 August 2010
What would happen if, instead of spare change, you handed a homeless
person the means to shop for what they wanted? Toronto reporter buys
pre-paid cards and finds out
* [3]Francis Collins's Covenant
Peter Boyer | New Yorker | 30 August 2010
Fascinating profile of Obama's appointee as head of National Institutes
Of Health. A brilliant geneticist, and fervent Christian, caught in
centre of culture war over stem-cell research
* [4]I Get Around
Mark Harris | NYT | 26 August 2010
Quite a review. Biography of Samuel Steward, drug addict, masochist,
philanderer, whose conquests included Rudolph Valentino, Lord Alfred
Douglas, Thornton Wilder. Later, apparently, a Hell's Angel
* [5]Are You Being Served?
James Surowiecki | New Yorker | 30 August 2010
Why is customer service so bad? Because it's a cost centre. Its effects
are hard to measure. And companies care more about attracting new
customers, than pleasing those they have
* [6]Green Book For Afro-American Drivers
Celia McGee | NYT | 22 August 2010
“The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide”, last
published 1964, advised Afro-American drivers where they would be
welcome to eat and stay in US, Canada, Mexico
* [7]Interview With Iran's Foreign Minister
Dieter Bednarz | Spiegel | 30 August 2010
Spiegel plays hardball. Great questions. Begins with stoning, then on to
election-rigging, corruption, nuclear weapons. Mottaki dodges, blusters.
All interviews should be like this
* [8]Chance News 65
Chance Wiki | 27 August 2010
Periodic anthology of quotations, statistics, problems, reports,
deriving from study of probability. Includes discussion of "Tuesday's
boy", successor to Monty Hall as most-argument-provoking puzzle
* [9]Pakistan Cricket In Turmoil Again
Mike Selvey | Guardian | 29 August 2010
Well-judged analysis of cricket betting scandal. No purpose served by
abandoning Pakistan; compassion may be in short supply but they should
be helped to recover
* [10]Will European Union Fall?
Charles Kupchan | WP | 29 August 2010
Sometimes, things are clearer viewed from a distance. US commentator
says European integration has gone into reverse, driven by nationalism
in general, Germany's in particular
* [11]Decline, But Not Inevitable Decline
Conrad Black | NRO | 26 August 2010
Magisterial right-wing overview of recent American history: fantastic
50-year run to 1989, save for Vietnam. After that, decay. Sideswipes
against lawyers forgivable from writer just out of jail
* [12]Topic: Wal-Mart
Inside the world's biggest private employer. The workers, the wages, the
customers, the public
Links:
2. http://b.rw/c1Y9Vm
3. http://b.rw/dwqJXZ
4. http://b.rw/bMXSVp
5. http://b.rw/9P78h1
6. http://b.rw/cUpqEX
7. http://b.rw/dkv1Cm
8. http://b.rw/bsMl1h
9. http://b.rw/cdfcaa
10. http://b.rw/cExX0k
11. http://b.rw/cG9O9W
12. http://thebrowser.com/topics/wal-mart

[13]Today on FiveBooks: award-winning writer Tom Piazza chooses the best
five books on New Orleans.
Links:
13. http://fivebooks.com

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