Enjoyable Snippets

Some of my favorite and thought-provoking bits from recent reading. (These fall halfway between the status "extremely interesting," which sparks essays and full-length books in my head, and the label of "blah," which I will never write about.)

Awesome articles (a rarity) from Sports Illustrated:
The May 4, 2009 Kelly Slater profile — one of the best profiles I've ever read.

The May 18, 2009 explanation of why Rafa is surging past Fed. A taste: "The answer lies in the regal language always used to describe Federer. Born to rule, he has never been interested in fighting for power; that's why in his current exile he looks less like Napoleon plotting on Elba than like the puzzled Czar Nicholas II waiting for the world to right itself and restore his throne."
The May 18, 2009 brief on Twittering . I am still anti-Twitter for many reasons, but I do like that it lets athletes hop over their polo-shirted PR representatives and just talk to the people.

Some things I enjoyed from the Boston Globe recently:
Film reviewer Wesley Morris, reviewing "Angels and Demons" and describing characters in Dan Brown's books: "information kiosks masquerading as characters."

Peter Funt opines about what big name commencement speakers are telling graduates. A sample: Vice President Joe Biden: "You all have the potential for greatness. But let's be honest, you might fail. In fact, you might fail miserably. I'm not saying you will fail, I'm just saying
that you will all be tested, and many of you will fail that test. But don't give up, and, whatever you do, try to avoid airplanes and subways."

And from Time magazine (these may be less fun):
On an article about tension in Pakistan, with much of the problem being that the majority of people support moderate Islam, yet the radical Taliban stirs up trouble: "Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, pulls up on his laptop the pages of a first-grade primer distributed in private religious schools. 'A is for Allah,' he reads. 'B is for bandook, or gun.' T, for thakrau, collision, is illustrated with a drawing of the World Trade Center in flames, while Z, for zenoub, the plural of sin, is depicted with alcohol bottles, kites, guitars, drums, a television and a chess set."

On autism: "In the late 1960s and early '70s, autism was considered a rarity in the U.S., so uncommon that many pediatricians believed they had never seen a case."

(Also interesting in this article is the story of the many different living facilities the parents took their autistic son to. He's now 42 years old and still needs help, but they're too old to take care of him. They finally found this place, which sounds like an innovative option and a hopeful sign for the growing community of people with mental illnesses who need care: "Noah lives in a two-bedroom house with a roommate, a 'normal' person, whose rent is partly subsidized in exchange for the attention she must pay to Noah when she is home. A rotating series of caregivers take Noah to the park or for walks or to fast-food restaurants during the day.")