The Torch Singer

Patti Smith is fifty-five, but she doesn’t look much different than she did in 1975, when her friend Robert Mapplethorpe photographed her for the cover of “Horses.” The Mapplethorpe photograph, which was shot in black-and-white—unusual for the time—is one of the most recognizable images in the iconography of rock and roll. Smith is standing against a white wall. Her dark hair, which grazes the base of her neck, is thick and wild, and she stares insolently at the camera. She wears a white shirt and has tossed a black jacket over her left shoulder in an homage to Frank Sinatra’s boulevardier poses. She looks arrogant, androgynous, and fragile.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Mar 11, 2002
Length: 48 minutes (12,024 words)

Burger Queen: April Bloomfield’s Gastropub Revolution

Jay-Z, an investor in the Spotted Pig, and a frequent patron, wanted the smoked-trout salad, but the kitchen was out. He and his group settled on the house specialty—burgers, which the restaurant’s chef, April Bloomfield, serves one way: char-grilled, on a brioche bun, topped with crumbled Roquefort. Only Lou Reed, a fixture in the neighborhood, is allowed to have his burger with onions, and that is owing to precedent: an awestruck employee took his order one afternoon when Bloomfield was out.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 15, 2010
Length: 33 minutes (8,419 words)

A Deadly Misdiagnosis: Is it possible to save the millions of people who die from TB?

Prasad said nothing more about the medical needs of his patients. “It’s a nice lab,” Mannan said when we left. “Beautiful, actually. But if the doctors used it properly that would interfere with their private practice.” I asked what he meant. “It is simple,” he said. “If patients are treated at the hospital, they won’t need to pay for anything else.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 8, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,215 words)

The Perfect Stride: Can Alberto Salazar straighten out American distance running?

At first, Salazar’s scheme was bizarrely complex. Among other things, he arranged for the design of a sealed house near the Nike campus in which athletes would sleep in rooms with varied amounts of oxygen. He also used an obscure computer program from Russia that claimed to measure an athlete’s fatigue level using electrodes that tracked variations in heart rate and in a runner’s “omega brain waves.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,123 words)

Overdrive: Who Really Rescued General Motors?

In February of 2009, Steven Rattner was selected by the Obama Administration to oversee the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. It was not a popular choice. Rattner was a Wall Street financier with no expertise in the automobile business. But, as Rattner makes clear in “Overhaul,” his account of the experience, the critics misunderstood his role.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 25, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,200 words)

In the Name of the Law

Mexico’s war on crime and drugs in Tijuana. A colonel cracks down on corruption.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 18, 2010
Length: 28 minutes (7,232 words)

Desert Storm: Harry Reid and Sharron Angle square off in Nevada

Harry Reid is the most powerful man in the Senate. Can the far right bring him down?

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 25, 2010
Length: 30 minutes (7,629 words)

Search and Destroy

Inside Gawker founder Nick Denton’s blog empire

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 18, 2010
Length: 38 minutes (9,612 words)

Later

What does procrastination tell us about ourselves?

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 11, 2010
Length: 14 minutes (3,574 words)

As the World Burns

How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change.

Author: Ryan Lizza
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 11, 2010
Length: 37 minutes (9,470 words)