Patrick Symmes writes about the the five bikes he’s had stolen for Outside: In America’s rough streets, there are four forms of currency—cash, sex, drugs, and bicycles. Of those, only one is routinely left outside unattended. Symmes deliberately allowed four of those bikes to be stolen in an attempt to track the thieves using a [...]
Splitsider’s Brian Boone on the even-more-meta-than-you-realized Princess Bride: While in the movie Grandpa mentions that his story is “The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern,” Goldman’s book really explores that notion. The full title of the novel is The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Goldman, he writes of himself [...]
John Davidson, writing for the Bygone Bureau: Billy was connected to neighborhood but he wasn’t really part of it. He lived in a small apartment in the back of the building and spent a lot of time hanging out on the stoop and playing pool in the tavern across the street. He knew everybody. The [...]
Watch Arcade Fire on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits. It’s a great show all around, but the transition from “Month of May” to “Rebellion (Lies)” is awfully good.
Rebecca McPheters, writing for AdAge: Of the 5,000 magazine and newspaper iPad apps we’ve evaluated for McPheters & Co.’s iMonitor service since April 2010, far too many simply do not work well. In the summer of 2010, about 45% of the apps we evaluated revealed significant malfunctions. The primary iPad magazine I read is The [...]
Mat Honan gets fed up with Google and switches to Bing. I’m giving this a try myself; Google still has a cleaner, less cluttered design, but if — as Honan claims — Bing gives more relevant results, the switch may be worth it. See also: Mat Honan’s CES coverage
The Morning News announces the short list, bracket and judges for the 2012 Tournament of Books. The Tournament begins in March, but you only have until Jan. 18th to vote for The Art of Fielding as your favorite book of the year.
Dave Gardetta on how Los Angeles’ parking requirements are crippling the city: Urban planners, says [Donald] Shoup, have no theory, use no hard data, when choosing parking requirements; they consult the manuals to decide. Every business imaginable is found within: Funeral parlors? A basic formula is eight parking spaces plus one for each hearse. Convents? [...]
The Best Story I Read This Year That Wasn’t Technically Written This Year The Courage of Jill Costello by Chris Ballard Sports Illustrated The Top Five: A Rough Guide to Disney World by John Jeremiah Sullivan The New York Times Magazine Chris Evans is Captain America by Edith Zimmerman GQ Cranking by Merlin Mann 43 [...]
Al Gore calls the climate crisis a “struggle for the soul of America” in Rolling Stone: Those of us who support and admire President Obama understand how difficult the politics of this issue are in the context of the massive opposition to doing anything at all — or even to recognizing that there is a [...]