27 October 2006

  • Violence against women in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan increases.
  • Wall Street workers hard-working, hard-drinking, therapy-adverse "Ice Men." Not to put on any labels.
  • Emilio Estevez totally, like, crushes on Tony Blair.
  • South Park perhaps "too soon" to mock Steve Irwin.
  • It could be a long weekend: Annoted Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.
  • You're heard of sleepwalking, but what about sleep, ahem, lovemaking?
  • The most popular brothel in Pompeii has been restored, though not for business.
  • French regional farmers turn to creative products (chocolate foie gras, anyone?) to seduce customers' bored palates.
  • Study finds college eventually pays for itself, or about $23,000 a year.
  • Collection of emails chronicles the Enron debacle, shows what happened when the smartest guys in the room got sloppy.
  • Gary Shteyngart explains the mystical qualities of vodka, calls for New York writers to drink more.
  • The YouTube phenomenon is creating a new form of cinema, un-housetrained by conventions of narrative interest or good taste.
  • Discussion-prompting developments in Michelin's 2007 guide to New York restaurants.
  • Cynicism-prompting swapping of hugs in Washington Square Park.
  • Another reason to get your kids involved in boar hunting: they'll improve the world.
  • Birnbaum talks to Michael Lewis about the emotional platform of his new book, The Blind Side. (Read his previous chat with Lewis on TMN.)
  • We've linked it before, and we'll link it again: David Lynch is your weatherman.
  • This month was the deadliest for soldiers in Iraq, with 92 killed in hostile action.
  • If you are a critic of the war, Rumsfeld would prefer that you "back off, take a look at it, relax."
  • Also, Google would prefer that you no longer use "Google" to mean "search the web."
  • Cheney believes using waterboarding on prisoners is a "no-brainer."
  • Final-week attack ads are stranger this year, playing up empty souls and corrupt groins.
  • Attention Katrina victims: The IRS doesn't want your back taxes until after the elections.
  • Politicians regularly enjoy surf, turf served overseas by companies seeking contracts in the U.S.
  • Wind-whipped arson fire burns 24,000 acres, kills four firefighters west of Palm Springs.
  • Exxon Mobil posts $10.5 billion profit.
  • Client's perspective after an architect is hired to extend the family's brand.
  • Hunt for all the stuffed polar bears in England yields an interactive map.
  • Many Bills posted where they shouldn't be.
  • Some Minneapolis cabbies now practice "service refusal" when a customer is carrying alcohol.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, animated.
  • Sarah Hepola in today's Digest on the best of the week's web videos.
  • Scary stories--Sleepy Hollow, Dracula, Hawthorne's Black Veil--just in time for Halloween.
  • Debate rages as more players realize early-October's record-shattering Scrabble game was based on mistakes and flukes.
  • Self-portraits show slide into dementia over nearly 40 years.
  • Report from both sides of the (terrifying) Arizona border.
  • Writer grades rejection notice from the Virginia Quarterly Review.
  • Wedding in which even the flowers and sandwiches were knitted.
  • Video: A young Alec Guinness (not really) sends Stanley Kubrick an audition tape.