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Short Reads 2012

A list of essays, short stories and other short works read in 2012-- a running tab:

• "Blue Star Arts Complex Seeing Influx of Retail" by Valentino Lucio. SAEN  19DEC12 (12/30/12).
• "The Human Casualties of the War on Drugs" by Andrew Cohen (thoughts about our system of incarceration and the role of the failed war on drugs -- an interview with film maker Eugene Jarecki). The Atlantic 28DEC12 (12/29/12)
• The possibility of a ballpark in or around downtown San Antonio. SA Express-News 17DEC12 (12/21/12)
• A few articles about local breweries, Ranger Creek and those idiots opposed to Alamo Brewing on the Eastside. From SA Current, SA Business Journal & SA Express-News (12/21/12)
• "A Visit from the Credibility Squad" by Jennifer C. Lena (How popular music is born and then tested as authentic). Pacific Standard 19DEC12 (12/17/12)
• "Amazing Tale of a Desperate WWII Pilot's Encounter with a German Flying Ace" by Maureen Callahan (They both kinda survive). New York Post 9DEC12 (12/12/12)
• "Operation Delirium" by Raffi Khatchacourian (Decades after a risky Cold War experiment, a scientist lives with secrets). The New Yorker 17DEC12 (12/10/12)
• "End of a Rivalry?" by Kelefa Sanneh (The rivalry between Pacquiao and Marquez is maybe finished). The New Yorker 10DEC12 (12/10/12)
• "Knight to Move" by Fritz Leiber (Short story about warring factions in the future -- pretty poorly written). Library of America (Story of the Week) DEC1965 (12/5/12)
• "How to Inspire your Brain" by Deepak Chopra (Matrix for a Positive Lifestyle:
  • Have good friends.
  • Don't isolate yourself.
  • Sustain a lifelong companionship with a spouse or partner.
  • Engage socially in worthwhile projects.
  • Be close with people who have a good lifestyle - habits are contagious.
  • Follow a purpose in life.
  • Leave time for play and relaxation.
  • Keep up satisfying sexual activity.
  • Address issues around anger.
  • Practice stress management.
  • Deal with the reactive mind's harmful effects: When you have a negative reaction, stop, stand back, take a few deep breaths, and observe how you're feeling.) Huffington Post 3DEC12 (12/5/12)
• "Jack and the Mad Dog" by Tony Earley [abstract] (Jack -- of Jack and the Beanstalk -- and his postmodern experience). The New Yorker 1OCT12 (11/23/12)
• "State Beer Laws Keeping Microbreweries Bottled Up" by Valentino Lucio. San Antonio Express-News 22NOV12 (11/23/12)
• "Small Breweries Being Crafted to Quench Beer Lovers' Taste" by Valentino Lucio. San Antonio Express-News 22NOV12 (11/23/12)
• "Sex and the Superbug" by Jerome Groopman ("The rise of drug-resistant gonorrhea"). The New Yorker 1OCT12 (11/19/12)
• "Faces, Places, Spaces" by Adam Gopnik ("The renaissance of geographic history" book reviews of geographic history). The New Yorker 29OCT12 (11/13/12)
• "Light Entertainment" by Andrew O'Hagan (child abuse at the BBC and the British public). London Review of Books 8NOV12 (11/5/12)
• "The Strange Science of Translating Sarcasm Online" by Katherine Rosman (a slightly misleading title as it discusses the necessity of human intelligence to understand sarcasm). Wall Street Journal 30OCT12 (10/30/12)
• "Citizen Jain" by Ken Auletta [abstract] (The Times of India and how it has changed the face of newspapers in India). The New Yorker 8OCT12 (10/28/12)
• "Fifty Shades of Beige" by Kerry Howley (the tantalizing lines between socially acceptable "healthy sex" and chaos and how Fifty Shades doesn't cross it). Bookforum SEP/OCT/NOV12 (10/19/12)
• "Why Handwriting Matters" by Philip Hensher. The Guardian 6OCT12 (10/14/12)
• "Affirmative Action Vs. White Priviledge" by Jamilah Lemieux (Abigail Fisher challenges her not getting into UT by challenging affirmative action). Ebony 9OCT12 (10/14/12)
• "A Possibly Fatal Mistake" by Nicholas D. Kristof (how the lack of healthcare may have killed one man). The New York Times 12OCT12 (10/14/12)
• "The Peak Time for Everything" by Sue Shellenbarger (how to organize your day around your body's rhythms). The Wall Street Journal 26SEPT12 (9/30/12)
• "A Bad Month for Books" by Leah Price (the connection between books and bodies -- how we see books). West 86th 10SEPT12 (9/24/12)
• "The War of the Words: How to Update a Dictionary" by John McWhorter. The New Republic 20SEPT12 (9/24/12)
• "After Hundreds of Years, Astronomers Finally Agree: This Is the Distance From the Earth to the Sun" by Megan Garber (149,597,870,700). The Atlantic 18SEPt12 (9/18/12)
• "Shame on 'Breaking Amish'" by Elizabeth Greenwood ("This is what immoral Reality TV looks like"). The Atlantic 18SEPT (9/18/12)
• "The Disappeared" by Salman Rushdie ("How the fatwa change a writer's life"). The New Yorker 17SEPT12 (9/18/12)
• "In Plain View" by Malcolm Gladwell ("Jerry Sandusky and the mind of a pedophile"). The New Yorker 24SEPT12 (9/17/12)
• "Overindulging at the Data Trough" by Michael Hardy (a look at The Information Diet by Clay Johnson). Federal Computer Week 11SEPT12 (9/17/12)
• "Could Time End?" by George Musser [abstract from SA]. Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 (9/12/12)
• "Bringing down the Moon" by Valerie Miles. Barcelona Noir 2011 (9/12/12)
• "Silent Strike" by David Makovsky [abstract] (the Israeli strike against Syria's nuclear site Al Kibar). The New Yorker 17SEPT12 (9/10/12)
• "Who Killed Sarcasm?" by Simon Doonan (the merits of sarcasm). Slate 5SEPT12 (9/9/12)
• "A History of New York in 50 Objects" by Sam Roberts. The New York Times 2SEPT12 (9/6/12)
• "Altered States" by Oliver Sacks [abstract] (the author's adventures with drugs and neuroscience). The New Yorker 27AUG12 (8/29/12)
• "The War Within" by Jon Lee Anderson [abstract] (Syria's civil war). The New Yorker 27AUG12 (8/26/12)
• "Medals and Marketing" by Ben McGrath [abstract] (the 2012 London Olympics and marketing). The New Yorker 13AUG12 (8/26/12)
• "Beer Geeks Determined to Unlock Obama's Home-Brew Recipe" John Hudson. The Atlantic Wire 21AUG12 (8/22/12)
• "Glory Days" by Louis Menand (a consideration of the Olympics). The New Yorker 6AUG12 (8/19/12)
• "Auto Crrect Ths!" by James Gleick (outsourcing spelling to autocorrect). NYTimes 4AUG12 (8/14/12)
• "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance" by Kiese Laymon (a thoughtfully written tract about the forces outside of yourself and inside of yourself that slowly kill you -- written specifically about the author's life growing up black in Central Mississippi; extraordinarily poignant). Cold Drank 10JUL12 (8/6/12)
• "How to Become an Ancient Olympic Ruin" by Matt McCann (the photography of Jaime McGregor Smith -- in particular the ruins of olympic stadiums past: Borrow, Build, Abandon). NYTimes blog 25JUL12 (8/2/12)
• "After America" by Dexter Filkins ("Will civil war hit Afghanistan when the U.S. leaves?"). The New Yorker 9&16JUL12 (8/2/12)
• "Don't Wear Yum-Yum Yellow" by Theo Tait (Thoughts about sharks in a review of Demon Fish by Juliet Eilperin). London Review of Books 2AUG12 (8/1/12)
• "Slackers" by Malcolm Galdwell [abstract] (What is slack and what do/should we do with it? I think some of the more interesting parts of this are about how one cannot, e.g. in the restaurant business, stay at the very top of their game or push themselves constantly to be the best. Also exit vs. voice). The New Yorker 30JUL12 (7/25/12)
• "Words on Trial" by Jack Hitt [abstract] (Forensic linguistics and its use in trials). The New Yorker 23JUL12 (7/24/12)
• "A History of Violence" by Jon Lee Anderson [abstract] (South Sudan's first year of independence and the continued fighting). The New Yorker 23JUL12 (7/24/12)
• "Das Kolumne: How to Write Exotic Fiction" by Seth Fried (Excellent advice). Tin House 19JUL12 (7/23/12)
• "Try and Change the Past" by Fritz Leiber (Time traveling story). Library of America 1958 (7/22/12)
• "Anatomy of a Fake Quotation" by Megan McArdle (How words were added to an MLK quotation). The Atlantic 3MAY11 (7/22/12)
• "The Warrior Class" by Charles Glass [abstract] (The re-rise of private armies). Harper's APR12 (7/17/12)
• "Disliking Federer" by Benjamin Markovits (More of a machine than a human overcoming obstacles). LRB 9JUL12 (7/9/12)
• "The 'Busy' Trap" by Tim Kreider. NY Times 30JUN12 (7/8/12)
• "Wave of Violence Swallows More Women in Juárez" by Damien Cave (women continue to be murdered in Juárez and there is nothing that anyone can or will do about it). NYTimes.com 23JUN12 (7/4/12)
• "Aleksander Hemon in Conversation with Colum McCann" (the state, if not the scale, of writing). The Believer JAN10 (6/27/12)
• The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard: "Joe Brainard's Ode to the Survivable Past" by Dan Chiasson The New Yorker 20JUN12  & the collection reviewed by Michael Dirda Washington Post. (6/26/12)
• "The Kingpins" by William Finnegan (Mexico's narco-criminal institutions). The New Yorker 2JUL12 (6/25/12)
• "Happy Bloomsday, Everybody!: Confessions of a Reluctant Ulysses Fan" by Evan McMurray (A consideration of Joyce's Ulysses). ology.com. 16JUN12 (6/20/12)
• "Ben Marcus: 'Writing Has to Earn People's Interest'" by Killian Fox (Ben Marcus interview). The Guardian 16JUN12 (6/19/12)
• "A Portable, Foldable House Made for Art Collectors" by Suzanne Labarre. Fast Company (Co.DESIGN) (6/17/12)
• "Come into the Roof Garden, Maud" by Djuna Barnes (An urban sketch of The Jardin de Danse or New York Roof). Library of America (Story of the Week) 8JUN12 (6/13/12)
• "Magic Hours: Tim Bissell on Creators and Creation by Maria Popova (A look at Bissell's collection of essays about writing). Brainpickings.com 13APR12 (6/12/12)
• from The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann (2010):
  • "True Crime: A Postmodern Murder Mystery" (A psychopath in Poland murders and then writes a novel about it, which police use to catch him?)
  • "Which Way Did He Run?: The Fireman Who Forgot 9/11"
  • "The Brand: The Rise of the Most Dangerous Prison Gang in America"
  • "Giving 'The Devil' His Due" (The story of Emmanuel "Toto" Constant -- a paramilitary death squad leader from Haiti or a CIA operative or both -- living in the United States)
• "The Clockwork Condition" by Anthony Burgess [abstract] ("The author comments on his most famous book, in 1973). The New Yorker 4&11JUN12 (6/5/12)
• "The Crop" by Flannery O'Connor (A woman imagines herself in her own story). Library of America: Flannery O'Connor Collected Works. 1988 (6/4/12)
• "Terrorists? Us?" by Owen Bennett-Jones (People’s Mujahedin of Iran, also known as the Mujahedin e Khalq [MEK] and their terrorist links). London Review of Books 7JUN12 (6/3/12)
• "How to Write any Essay: The Spartan Method" by Ryan Holiday (Well-known technique about writing an essay couched in military vocabulary). Huffington Post 30MAY12 (6/2/12)
• "Living in the End Times" by Ben Marcus (Why American writes are obsessed with the apocalypse). New Statesman 18APR12 (5/30/12)
• "The Yankee Comandante" by David Grann (William Alexander Morgan: a story of love, revolution and betrayal). The New Yorker 28MAY12 (5/29/12)
• "Sub Theater Lifted from Aquarena Springs Site" by Hollie O'Connor (The heady days of the 60s into the 90s when people could play tic tac toe with a chicken at Aquarena Springs). San Antonio Express-News 25MAY12 (5/25/12)
• "Identity Parade" by Peter Hessler [abstract] (Life in an identity lineup in England). The New Yorker 21MAY12 (5/24/12)
• "Taco USA" by Gustavo Arellano (How Mexican food became more American than apple pie). Reason JUN12 (5/21/12)
• "Former Brewery Is Adding a Bar" by Valentino Lucio and Lindsay Kastner (Blue Box opens at The Pearl). SA Express-News 17MAY12 (5/20/12)
• "The Loss Library: Ivan Vladislavic Revisits His Failures" (Book review of The Loss Library). The National 12MAY12 (5/16/12)
• "The Instant Expert: All Kinds of Stories" by Rick Arthur (Genres). The National 21MAR12 (5/13/12)
• "American Isolato" by Ginger Strand (violence and the American highways). The Believer May12 (5/12/12)
• "Pop Culture's 40-Year Itch" transcript of Guy Raz & Adam Gopnik. NPR 21APR12 (5/9/12)
• "The Forty-Year Itch" by Adam Gopnik (the cycle of nostalgia in popular culture -- specifically movies). The New Yorker 23APR12 (5/9/12)
• "The Torture of Solitary" by Stephanie Elizondo Griest [abstract]. The Wlison Quarterly Spring12 (5/9/12)
• "Suicide Is Scandalous" by Henry Kane. The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (5/8/12)
• "Left, Right and Science" by Christopher Clausen [abstract] (the Right might have been on the side of science ). The Wilson Quarterly Spring12 (4/?/12)
• "Arson Plus" by Dashiell Hammett. Library of America reprinted from Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories & Other Writings 2001 (4/1/12)
• "How Creativity Works" by Maria Popova (a review of Jonah Lehrer's Imagine: How Creativity Works). Brainpickings 20MAR12 (3/21/12)
• "Same-as-that" by Dale Peck (signs taken for wonder written as letter). Harper's MAR12 (3/21/12)
• "Age of Ignorance" by Charles Simic (the wonderful age in which we live so wholeheartedly with out our heads). NY Times Review of Books Blog 20MAR12 (3/20/12)
• "Clean Bill of Health: The Novel's Myriad Roads to Recovery" by Chris Arnold (how the novel has not only survived but thrived and not as warring factions of experimental and realist). The Million 15MAR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Realist's Guide to Experimental Fiction" by Eugenia Williamson (an examination of her own dislike of experimental fiction and then Marcus' The Flame Alphabet and Gray's Threats). The Boston Phoenix 14MAR12 (3/20/12)
• "God and Caesar in America" by David Campbell and Robert Putnam (why mixing religion and politics is bad for both). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Man Who Broke Atlantic City" by Mark Bowden (how one man beat the odds and won nearly $15 million). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "Night Owls" by Benjamin Shwarz (how nightlife changed Western culture, plus why New Zealand is better than the U.S.). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "How We Spend" by Stephen Rose (where we spend our money now compared to 60 years ago -- good infographics). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Royal Me" by Matt Seigel (secessionism in Australia). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Secret Ingredient" by Wayne Curtis (how myths of recipes make liquor taste better). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Glove That Would Change The Game" by Daniel Fromson (a new baseball glove). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
• "The Deadliest Virus" by Michael Specter [abstract] (should dissemination in magazines like Nature and Science of information about the, now, transmittable-to-humans virus H5N1 [bird flu] be allowed? the reward outweighs the risks). NewYorker 12MAR12 (3/17/12)
• "In Syria" by Jonathan Steele. LRB 22MAR12 (3/17/12)
• "They're, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve" by Douglas Quenqua (how young women shape linguistics). NY Times 27FEB12 (3/13/12)
• "Bones of the Book" by Robert Moor (the future of the ebook). N+1 27FEB12 (3/13/12)
• "The Future of U.S.-Chinese Relations" by Henry Kissinger [abstract] ("conflict is a choice, not a necessity"). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/12/12)
• "The Case for Space" by Neil deGrasse Tyson [abstract] (why the US should continue to spend money on space exploration). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/12/12)
• "It's enough to Literally Make Your Head Explode" by A. Barton Hinkle (you will literally not believe how people use literally). Reason.com 3FEB12 (3/10/12)
• "The Implosion" by Jon Lee Anderson (inside the beginnings of chaos in Syria). The New Yorker 27FEB12 (3/9/12)
• "A Meta-Analytical Review of Selective Exposure to and the Enjoyment of Media Violence" by Andrew J. Weaver. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 55, no. 2 (April 2011): 232-250. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 29, 2012)
• "The Story of a Suicide" by Ian Parker (Dahrun Ravi and Tyler Clementi -- a webcam and Tyler's subsequent suicide). The New Yorker 6FEB12 (2/28/12)
• "Get a Real Degree" by Elif Batuman (review of Mark McGurl's The Programme Era). London Review of Books 23SEP10 (2/24/12)
• "The Plagiarist's Tale" by Lizzie Widdicombe (Quentin Rowan, a.k.a. Q.R. Markham, Plagiarist Addict). The New Yorker 13FEB12 (2/22/12)
• "Smaller Publishing Houses Provide for a Rich, Diverse Literary Landscape" by Gerry LaFemina. Highbrow Magazine 9FEB12 (2/18/12)
• "The Boy who Was like a 'Flower'" by Anthony Shadid (during the first part of the Iraq war, a child is killed). The Pulitzer Prizes (reprint from The Washington Post 31MAR03) (2/17/12)
• "How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy" by Kathleen McAuliffe (Toxoplasma gondii -- the parasitic microbe that reproduces in cats -- and how it affects the brain). The Atlantic MAR12 (2/16/12)
• "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner ("The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease"). American Anthropologist JUN56 (reproduced @ Michigan State University website) (2/15/12)
• "How Language Shapes Thought" by LeraBoroditsky [preview] (argument for the idea that language does shape thought). Scientific American (reprinted in Annual Editions: Anthropology 12/13) FEB11 (2/15/12)
• "Underage sex trafficking is everywhere local law enforcement looks, but will their budgets hold out?" by Michael Barajas. SA Current 8FEB12 (2/8/12)
• "Working Titles" by Leslie T. Chang (fiction in China is all about getting ahead in the workplace). The New Yorker 6FEB12 (2/7/12)
• "A Homepage for Philosophy" by Liam Julian (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considered). Humanities (NEH) JAN/FEB12 (2/4/12)
• "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik (American's are being incarcerated at astounding rates). The New Yorker 30JAN12 (2/3/12)
• "Fragmentary: Writing in a Digital Age" by Guy Patrick Cunningham (the fragmentary nature of reading online and how writing can understand that process on the creative end -- Shields' Reality Hunger & Tupitsyn's Laconia). The Millions 24JAN12 (1/27/12)
• "How Abstract Expressionism Makes for Great Basketball" by Ryan Sachetta. SA Current 25JAN12 (1/26/12)
• "Texas Soon Awash in Craft-Beer Suds" by Roy Bragg (the rising tide of Texas breweries). MySA 19JAN12 (1/20/12)
• "Has Microsoft Word Affected the Way We Work?" by John Naughton (the way tools affect our creative potential or not). The Observer 14JAN12 (1/20/12)
• Mark Rothko: Painted in Blood by Jeffrey A. Kottler (the focus here is on Rothko's troubled life and it's relationship with his creativity; he was an outsider who's success created more problems than it solved). Chapter Four in Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle by Kottler 2006 (1/18/12)
• "China's War against Harry Potter" by Stephen M. Walt (China demands a culture machine but will fail). Foreign Policy 4JAN12 (1/14/12)
• "E-Reader May Be Invading Your Privacy" by Marissa Ciullo (does the information stored about your reading habits compromise your privacy or even your right to free speech?). OxfordPatch 9JAN12 (1/13/12)
• "Creative Writing" by Etgar Keret. The New Yorker 2JAN12 (1/11/12)
• "Law of Escape" by Andreu Martin. Barcelona Noir, Akashic Books 2011 (1/10/12)
• "All Due Respect" by Peter Hessler (journalist Jake Adelstein and his reporting on the yakuza). The New Yorker 9JAN12 (1/9/12)
• "Inquiring Minds" by Adam Gopnik (the Spanish Inquisition revisited). The New Yorker 16JAN12 (1/9/12)
• "Happy Queue Year" by Ryan Sachetta (reviews of art documentaries). Glasstire 9JAN12 (1/9/12)
• "The Future of History" by Francis Fukuyama [abstract] (liberal politics needs to reinvent itself). Foreign Affairs JAN/FEB12 (1/8/12)
• "The Mosque on the Square" by Peter Hessler [abstract] (two weeks in the [continuing] Egyptian revolution). The New Yorker 19DEC11 (1/5/12)
• "Time to Attack Iran" by Matthew Kroenig [abstract] (arguments for strikes against Iran's nuclear sites). Foreign Affairs JAN/FEB12 (1/5/12)
• "Books that Are Never Done Being Written" by Nicholas Carr (how movable type will change the "permanence" of books). WSJ 31DEC11 (1/4/12)
• "You Say You Want a Devolution?" by Kurt Andersen (why fashion has become so stagnant). Vanity Fair JAN12 (1/3/12)