Weekly newsletter 91
Best of the Week
Edge And The Art Collector
Gary Sernovitz | n+1 | 16 January 2013
Surely one of the best essays ever published by n+1, which is setting the bar very high. Speculative account of Steven Cohen, hedge fund tycoon, seen here through the prism of his other life as an art collector. Gorgeously understated prose style. Equally sound on the art and the money. Do yourself a favour. Make time. Read this
Health Journalism: Survival Of The Wrongest
David Freedman | Columbia Journalism Review | 2 January 2013
Why is so much health journalism so bad? Even the New York Times seems happy to publish collections of claims, trends and anecdotes masquerading as fact. It's partly because health is a complicated and changing subject. But it's more because journalists are content to report research, instead of scrutinising it as they should
Tedium Is Torture: What It's Like To Have Severe ADHD
Mike Bebernes | Motherboard | 8 January 2013
"My life is lived between the poles of who I really am and who the Ritalin turns me into. A simple trip to Ikea can either be a productive use of a Saturday or an overwhelming gauntlet of tedium and frustration, depending on whether or not I have prescription methylphenidates in my bloodstream"
57th Street Rag
Janet Coleman | New York Review Of Books | 15 January 2013
First in a series of reminiscences by staff members of the New York Review of Books, marking the magazine's fiftieth anniversary. "Through the open doorway (there were no office doors), you could hear Barbara’s great loud peals of laughter on the phone with Edmund, Wystan, Virgil, Vladimir and Gore"
Barak's Last Battle
Jonathan Tepperman | Foreign Affairs | 13 January 2013
Full-length portrait of Ehud Barak, resigning as Israel's defence minister. "Special forces legend" in his youth, later prime minister. Launched failed peace talks with Syria and Palestinians. But never popular with public or in politics. Aloof, arrogant, too clever for his own good
What US Jews Don’t Get About European Anti-Semitism
Jonathan Freedland | Daily Beast | 14 January 2013
"This is becoming a regular task for a British Jew: reassuring our American friends that, no, we are not living in a new dark age and, no, the lights are not going out all over Europe. Such fear is fed by the claim that the British capital has become Londonistan, a sharia-ruled outpost where al Qaeda sheiks preach on every street corner"
A Maid's Execution In Saudi Arabia
Basharat Peer | New Yorker | 11 January 2013
"On Wednesday, the Saudi Arabian government beheaded Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan woman who had worked as a maid in the kingdom, holding her responsible for the death of the four-month-old baby of her employer." She was 17. The baby choked on its milk. She had no training in child care
Video of the week: NFL: A Bad Lip-Reading
Thought for the week:
"The boldness of middle-aged seducers shouldn't be mistaken for confidence; it's just an increased fear of death" — Alain de Botton
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