A Song for Aretha

When I am frustrated with my generation it is often because we have a willful disregard for what has come before. Aretha Franklin seems a prime example of this. Those hats are the hats of black churches. That weight and those breasts are a body that has aged. That hometown is family and that fear of flying is, above all, human. That “shut up” was a demand that you recognize she has been there, she has done that, and you could learn a thing or two from listening to where the “there” and the “that” have brought her and what they have shown her.

Published: Feb 4, 2011
Length: 16 minutes (4,177 words)

Innocence Found

“All charges have been dropped.” He looked at her, dumbfounded. “You’re free,” she said. “You’re going home.” “Are you playing with me?” he whispered. Cásarez shook her head. “It’s over,” she said. “It’s finally over.” On the table beside her was a dismissal order from the court filed at 3:57 p.m. that stated, “We have found no credible evidence which inculpates this defendant.” The decision to drop all charges had come so suddenly that the defense team had only learned the news earlier that afternoon. As Anthony Graves leaned against Cásarez, he broke down.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Jan 1, 2011
Length: 24 minutes (6,084 words)

Leaving Egypt, with Regrets: The Evacuated Students of Cairo

Through the dense fog, Gunnar saw a lone old man stand in the middle of a deserted street, berating a fearsome wall of police. Then the helmeted officers began charging, firing a hail of bullets. Gunnar dove behind a car. His pants split. He couldn’t tell if the police were firing high or if the old man had been hit. He was a block from his apartment, but he couldn’t get home. He ducked into a shop, where eight people were hiding among the safety of bolts of cloth. “Take those off,” said the shop owner, a tailor, pointing to Gunnar’s pants. “I’ll sew them for you.”

Source: The Awl
Published: Feb 7, 2011
Length: 6 minutes (1,524 words)

Mind vs. Machine

In the race to build computers that can think like humans, the proving ground is the Turing Test—an annual battle between the world’s most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The objective? To find out whether a computer can act “more human” than a person. In his own quest to beat the machines, the author discovers that the march of technology isn’t just changing how we live, it’s raising new questions about what it means to be human.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Feb 8, 2011
Length: 33 minutes (8,495 words)

An Evening with J. D. Salinger

In the apartment, which was a brownstown further uptown, Salinger asked us what we would like to drink. I offered my help getting out the ice, but no, he’d prefer to do it himself. The bar’s bottles and glasses were arranged at one end of a counter between the small kitchen space and the living room, and we stood around while Salinger poured—whiskey for all, I think. Drinks in hand, Jill, Joe, and I sank into a long sofa across from the bar, Jill sitting between us. Salinger sat down on a chair facing us across a coffee table. In my buzzy contentment I looked around the room at the pictures on the walls, and I lost track of what Joe and Salinger were saying to one another until I heard Joe ask, “Where did you go to college, J. D.?”

Published: Feb 7, 2011
Length: 7 minutes (1,792 words)

The Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Celexa, Effexor, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan, Restoril, Xanax, Adderall, Ritalin, Haldol, Risperdal, Seroquel, Ambien, Lunesta, Elavil, Trazodone War

Depending on the war, post-traumatic stress can have many expressions, but this war, because of its omnipresent suicide bombers and roadside explosives, seems to have disproportionately rendered its soldiers afraid of two things: driving and crowds. David Booth manages his driving anxieties by leaving his Long Island home every morning at 4:30 a.m., when there’s no risk of traffic (especially under bridges, which militants in Iraq are always blowing up), and avoiding the right lane (in Afghanistan and Iraq, one generally drives in the middle of the road to avoid setting off IEDs).

Published: Feb 7, 2011
Length: 19 minutes (4,800 words)

The Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology

The writer-director forwarded his resignation to more than twenty Scientologist friends, including Anne Archer, John Travolta, and Sky Dayton, the founder of EarthLink. “I felt if I sent it to my friends they’d be as horrified as I was, and they’d ask questions as well,” he says. “That turned out to be largely not the case. They were horrified that I’d send a letter like that.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Feb 7, 2011
Length: 99 minutes (24,922 words)

Best Seats in the House

“Hey, boobie, talk to me,” the Ticket Man said. The Ticket Man, whose name is Richard Ebers, was on the phone. He is always on the phone. The best way to speak to the Ticket Man is to call him, even if you’re standing next to him. His wife has trouble getting a word. Often, he is juggling three calls. “Allman Brothers? What’s the date?” “Robbie? Hi, boob. Tell me what you want.” “Yeah, babe, what do you need?” The Ticket Man’s business is the resale of premium tickets to sporting events and concerts. By premium ticket, he means “the best in the house.”

Published: Feb 6, 2011
Length: 10 minutes (2,518 words)

The Final Countdown

Some time this year, NASA’s space shuttle will touch down for the last time. Bereft of their jobs and their mission, what will happen to the people of Florida’s Space Coast? “The Space Coast is also facing a less visible but equally unnerving identity crisis. Over the years, the shuttle has not just brought dollars to Brevard County—or to the rest of the US for that matter—but a unifying statement of daring and of America’s capacity to do what no other country can do. ‘Whenever we launch, it is an act of courage. It is an act of risk taking,’ John Shannon, the director of the program, told me. ‘Even though we are reminded after Challenger and Columbia that this is a risky business, we still choose to do that.'”

Author: Sam Knight
Source: Prospect
Published: Jan 26, 2011
Length: 16 minutes (4,016 words)

How ‘The Fridge’ Lost His Way

His day consists of watching television and eating three or four meals prepared by his heart-broken wife, Valerie. She nags him to exercise, but says she gets “cussed out” for it. She bugs him to take his medication but says she gets ignored over it. Her new trick, just to get him on his feet, is to tell him he has to come to the kitchen to eat his lunch. That’s her best way to get “The Refrigerator” to walk near the refrigerator. Of course, then when she least expects it, her husband will hobble out the door and into his car. She knows exactly where he’s headed: to the liquor store. Because every day ends with William Perry needing a drink.

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Feb 6, 2011
Length: 25 minutes (6,324 words)