November 27, 2013: Afternoon
- China explains why it didn't respond when American and Japanese jets flew through its new air defense zone over the East China Sea.
- Putin usually makes guests wait 30 minutes to see him, but the Pope waited nearly an hour.
- New Snowden document says the NSA has been monitoring Islamist radicals' online sexual activity to undermine them.
- Round-up of tools, tweets, and websites for tracking Thanksgiving travel delays in real time.
- Related, your Thanksgiving homework: nominating your favorite work of fiction from 2013 for the 10th annual Tournament of Books.
- Julian Barnes on Lucien Freud.
- Director Christopher Nolan credits the bleakness in his Batman films to an admiration for Francis Bacon.
- Writer Philip Graham eats a stranger's plantain as part of his remembrance for the great Oscar Hijuelos.
- Famous novelists respond to a 16-year-old's query as to whether or not they deliberately use symbolism in their works.
- South African luxury resort offers "Shanty Town" for visitors who want to stay in a fake township; rooms cost $80 a night, half a month's salary for the average South African.
- Atlantic Monthly reporter records people around America pronouncing regional phrases.
- Australian cricketer punished for "sledging," or talking trash to an opponent.
- Related: TMN's Kevin Guilfoile explains cricket to Americans.
- The dirty little secret behind CrossFit is a potentially fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis.
- Skateboarding prodigies on YouTube switch their interest to tennis, stoking YouTube fans' resentment.
- In a mile-long run, contemporary children would finish a full minute and a half later than their parents did at their age in the 1980s.
- For your Thanksgiving contemplation: Staged photographs of people mauled by their favorite foods.