December 15, 2011: Afternoon
- State Dept. "will have billions to spend" in Iraq over the next few years.
- And now we get to prematurely place behind us another quite troubling incident in our recent history.
- This year was the first in over three decades that fewer than 100 people were sent to death row.
- Year in review for The Onion.
- National Review says nominating Gingrich will give the election to Obama.
- List of "the worst, most predictable, and least interesting" pundits in America.
- Praise for improvisations based on Bach's "Goldberg Variations"—but what is a "pintucked shirt?"
- Before there was today's zombie craze, there was Daniel Defoe, who wrote the original novel in 1722.
- Stephen Merchant moves out from Ricky Gervais's shadow to continue his standup career.
- If there's one recurring image that defines the cinema of Steven Spielberg, it is the Spielberg Face—total submission to what's seen.
- Drawings of traditional sailor tattoos.
- Twenty items the perfect man does not do, possibly all at once.
- Absolutely true: The New York Review of Books is a vital intellectual read like no other.
- Other holiday reading: TMN's best holiday pieces collected for smartphone/Kindle, introduced by Sarah Hepola.
- Radiolab on a different invisible 99%—e.g., how modern electronic devices "sound right" with carefully designed beeps and clicks.