Other
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Saturday Morning Links
This week for me contains both Mardi Gras and Spring Break. Unfortunately, my hangovers hurt too badly these days for me to give this convergence the honor it deserves. This is one of those stories that’s utterly unsurprising when you…
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Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #3
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: “I thought I’d be happy with just one!” Kellie says, her slender frame weighed down under two full pounds of beads. Around her neck they gleam in a perfect…
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Story Time: Danielle Evans
It’s Friday. What better way to relax than to let someone read to you. Watch author Danielle Evans read her short story, “Wherever You Go, There You Are,” from NPR headquarters.
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Banned Books Welcomed Home
Controversial books once banned in Egypt and Tunisia are starting to appear again in stores. Cairo’s Tahrir Square, now famous as the site of tense political protests, will soon be the site of a large book fair. “Everyone around the…
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Neko Case’s Muscle Car-‘Splosion!
What’s better than going for a ride in Neko Case’s car? Winning it in a raffle, of course. And if that raffle benefits a good cause? Well, that’s one very thoughtful Mercury Cougar.
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Diagnosing Genius
Frederick Chopin wrote music in the grip of vivid hallucinations, possibly caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. Countless artists – Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, William Blake, and Lewis Carroll, to name just a few – have also been diagnosed with…
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Pick-Up Lines and Library Fines
Finally a social science experiment attempting to answer the age-old questions: “Can Atlas Shrugged find love with the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test? Is attraction possible between a Jonathan Franzen reader and a die-hard Elizabeth Gilbert fan?” Speed dating at the library might…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
South Korea’s ship is much bigger than yours. The Smithsonian wants you to look at animals. As long as people are thinking about New Orleans, here is some NOLA based installation-street art. The bible will soon be bootyless (and have…
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The Joys Of Freelancin’
“The great thing about freelance, of course, is the numerous freedoms it embraces, chief among them being the freedom to work in your underwear. This seems to be the one that everyone knows. I was talking on the phone to…
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I Follow Dead People
Know who’s now on Twitter? Arthur Miller, Sylvia Plath, the BFG, and even Behemoth, the black cat from The Master and Margarita. It’s all a part of Reorbit, a “reanimation of historical and literary figures.” The full list of characters…
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Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #2
Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: “Y’all ready?” I ask the cops, clustered near the corner of Napoleon and St Charles. “Been ready,” one shoots right back at me. “Just ready to get it done.”…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Let’s all just take a moment to look at buildings in the puddles of New York. These are things people spend money on: a $350 hundred year old stick of gum. Alternatively you could just buy these Dali tarot cards.…