Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Daily Digest

Ice Hotel in Sweden

How would you feel if your advocacy of the Iraq war directly inspired someone to enlist—who shortly thereafter perished from an IED? Christopher Hitchens measures his words against a family's grief and a young man's sacrifice.

Josh Levin laments what Sports Illustrated has become: "Sports Illustrated is allowing market research to masquerade as editorial judgment. Perhaps it's effective from a business standpoint—the mag has maintained its huge circulation lead over ESPN the Magazine, and a recent industry survey showed an increase of 14 percent in readers between ages 18 and 24 the last two years—but it's making the magazine an inferior product. . . . The old SI used sports as a window onto life and culture beyond the playing field or, failing that, as a vehicle for great writing. The new SI uses sports as a window onto itself or, failing that, as a vehicle for cringe-inducing anecdotes."

Mrs. Jerry Seinfeld tells the NYT how she met her husband.

What does it mean to be an American? Surely one of our defining characteristics is productivity, such that multimillionaire 30-somethings, instead of basking in their earned retirement, continue to work 15-hour days, in search of the next big thing.

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