June 13, 2014

• Sunni fighters captured two more Iraqi towns overnight in a "lightning sweep" towards Baghdad.
• Sixty-five-year-old woman stayed in her house for two years because of the violence in Homs, Syria.
• Newsweek journalist finds inanity in George Will's archive.
• Brief history of the fiasco that is Entertainment Weekly.
• Ontario's new premier, Kathleen Wynne, is North America's first openly gay head of government.
• Texas governor Rick Perry says gays and alcoholics can "decide not to do that."
• Writer explains what it's like to be confronted by Richard Marx face-to-face.
• Study finds "cool kids" to be less socially competent once they reach their twenties.
• West African commission finds that punishing drug use is counterproductive, as pre-trial detention periods encourage corruption.
• Thanks to the World Cup, certain businesspeople are doing great, particularly British retailers and Brazilian sex workers.
• See also: Playing soccer in space.
• Analysis of World Cup shorts shows soccer kits reflecting the rise and fall of women’s hemlines.
• John Casteen on over-40s soccer.
• The next time a creep wants your phone number, give them a feminist phone intervention.
• Terrorist scarves, whirling dervishes, and medicine wheels: coming to terms with cultural appropriation.
• Round-up of unconventional writers' residencies.
• Alexander Chee, author who started #AmtrakResidency, describes his favorite artist colonies.