July 2010 Archives
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Of Recent Note
Part-Time Knowledge
The worst summer employment is a three-month slog. But sometimes even temporary jobs offer permanent lessons. Our staff and readers share what they’ve learned.
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Birnbaum v.
David Mitchell Redux
Ten years after their first conversation, author David Mitchell and our man in Boston discuss 18th-century Japan, shoplifting from other novels, and Mitchell’s annual Christmas party.
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Current Reads
Jeff Bezos Sucks
Inquire of any observer within reasonable proximity of his or her wits and I doubt any would say that last week represented a hopeful moment in the life of our...
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The Biblioracle
Why Do You Do It the Way You Do It?
The Biblioracle will be open today from 1 to 3 p.m. After explaining the secret behind oracling, the Biblioracle takes the last five books you read and tells you what to read next.
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Gallery
The Dead
Inspired by photographs of Sicilian catacombs, Jack Burman has spent over a decade scouring Europe and South America, among other places, for the dead.
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Announcements
What I Learned From My Summer Job
Even the worst summer job can teach you something. For instance, always carry an epi-pen. Vaseline is not a substitute for sunblock. On garbage day, take the bus. Summer jobs:...
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Birnbaum v.
Richard Flanagan
A conversation with Australian novelist Richard Flanagan about the erosion of book culture, Nicole Kidman’s genius, and souls that are ever underline-able.
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Paging Summer
Let’s Make It Better
Summer yawns ahead, hot and school-free. What better way to spend the afternoon than with a book? The TMN writers’ children fill us in on their latest reads and rethink the endings.
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Current Reads
Lazy, Hazy Summer Days
Not being a statistician, I am not offering this as a fact, but my sense is that there are more short story collections being published than ever. And given the...
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Letters From London
Stiff Upper Lip Meets Sword of Truth
David Cameron explained his plan yesterday to build a “big society” and no one understood a word of it. A translation, with help from droid Margaret Thatcher.
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Gallery
Juicy Paint
If Salvador Dalí and Paul Rubens painted Saudi kings while eating caviar and listening to Elvis, the collaboration might look like Ralph Wolfe Cowan’s portraits of heads of state, iconic celebrities, and buff, young models.
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Roundtables
Paper Tigers
Sports are stupid. Beautiful. Dull. Transcendent. Most of all, they’re more than just games. We assembled sports writers, critics, freaks, and authors to tell us why.
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Behind the Scenes
The Beaver Post-Production
No one knows what will happen to The Beaver, Jodie Foster’s new film starring Mel Gibson, where Gibson plays a suicidal man whose life is changed by a hand puppet.
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To Live Like This Is to Be Happy Forever
A Knot in the Old Family Tree
When you’re looking to replace the radiator for a V-8 engine, it can help to have cousins you can count on. The tale of a risky family connection.
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Current Reads
It’s a Mad, Mad World
The notion that insanity is the only rational response to a mad and maddening world—a notion romantically articulated by exotic psychiatric adventurer and trailblazer R.D. Laing in the...
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Gallery
Low-Density Polyethylene
German photographer Julian Faulhaber captures public spaces—supermarkets and parking garages—in the moments between their construction and when they are opened for public use.
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Letters From Havana
Cuban Kremlinology
In Cuba, bloggers face reprisals and internet access is governed by mysterious forces. Even telephones can’t be trusted.
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The Golem Blog
On Surrender
The day after being roped into his latest protection duties, The Golem faces new threats—and a history of unstoppable devotion.
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Personal Essays
In Tennis, Love Means Nothing
A pro author challenges a pro tennis player to a tournament. A story of dueling, drumming, and one extraordinary victory.
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Personal Essays
The Rough Cut
When you share your life with a reality TV editor, you learn that reality often winds up on the cutting-room floor.
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Current Reads
Libraries of the Imagination
Having recently resumed my status, as Facebook would state it, of being “in a relationship,” and having adopted a three-month-old Labrador-Australian Cow Dog hybrid named Beny (about whom you will...
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Spoofs & Satire
The Constant Gardener
A spate of arrests reveals Russian spies have been living undetected in the U.S., posting on Facebook—and tending to their gardens.
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Of Recent Note
Fantasy Road Trips
If gas was free, vacation days were unlimited, and your schedule was as open as the road ahead, where would you go? Our staff and readers unfold their maps.