Headlines from October 20, 2009
- In the Middle East, force often trumps diplomacy, though winning a battle can still lose a war.
- Op: Tens of millions are suffering and Wall Street is printing money--where's the outrage?
- Chart shows D.C. and Baltimore with 1:1 ratios of job postings to unemployed persons.
- Fifty phrases to eradicate from the workplace (and the more predictable Esquire version).
- Arguing the First Amendment case for protecting (or not) the encouragement of murder.
- Finland makes internet access a legal right.
- Account of an uprising at the nation's largest private prison.
- Inmates learn compassion by consoling dying inmates.
- Dutch journalism students comb newspapers for errors and serve pies to offending journalists.
- Almost everyone reads; now authorship is growing tenfold.
- Many Arabs are poor due to terrible educations; governments respond by promoting private academies.
- Bogus H1N1 cures include water filters, biohazard coveralls, and "Flu Away" inhalers.
- I have noticed among those I meet a tincture of incredulity. Confessions of a gay congressional spouse.
- Creepy vintage ads.
- Blind-tasting Bordeaux with Robert Parker can remind you that all palates are fallible.
- Democrats busy writing national health proposals with many variations--including a public option.
- New Japanese verb: "obamu" (to Obama).
- After nearly five centuries, the Catholic Church welcomes Anglicans back into the fold.
- #drac: Kevin Fanning notes the most annoying accents in Dracula, in order of annoyingness.
- "Maybe I could help you with the jokes." How I turned Woody Allen into a comic strip.
- Video: The scene in Annie Hall where the comic strip became a cartoon.
- Black Death's not dead--and it's poised for a comeback.
- The secret to finding extraterrestrial life: Follow the trash.
- How those iPhone apps that listen to songs and figure out what they are work.
- First names in the lyrics of popular songs, 1891-present.
- So I'm finally writing the novel. It's about a midget piano player in Long Island who marries a supermodel.
- An examination of the American obsession with catching foul balls at baseball games.
- Sometimes, the baseball team wants its ball back.
- How to make your own Shake Shack burger (the "Fake Shack").