Yahoo! (A Lion, a Duke, the Tax-Rate Fungi) Yahoo! (A Lion, a Duke, the Tax-Rate Fungi)
If men read epic poetry in bed, And never change their Eeyore underwear, On bunny kidney they’ve unwisely fed: That’s whorehouse food, and most unwholesome fare. If lotus eaters kick spondaic asses, And love trochaic bunny ears the best, It starts a war between the lower classes And puts poetic hooey to the test. If op art poet laureates go bald, And end up haunting Fred on Scooby-Doo, It’s they who to a nunnery are hauled: They have some vinyl bunny ears for you. On Yahoo! you are only who you are, And no one there is anyone… so far.
Jul 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / K. Silem Mohammad
Russian Hero Russian Hero
A bet on a horse in the 1949 Grand National resulted in the largest collective transfer of wealth ever to communism's stalwarts in Britain.
Jul 27, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Cockburn
Three Poems by Benjamin Friedlander Three Poems by Benjamin Friedlander
"Cats Can," "Anchor Baby," "Chick Flick"
Jul 25, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Friedlander
Special Schadenfreude Edition… Special Schadenfreude Edition…
Eric reviews Paul McCartney, Raul Malo and Elvis Costello, and Reed sees the ghost of the Republican party's past.
Jul 21, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
Gary Shteyngart Interview—The Future, With Fox Prime Ultra and the Bipartisan Party: A Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart Interview—The Future, With Fox Prime Ultra and the Bipartisan Party: A Super Sad True Love Story
A novelist imagines politics in “the near future.”
Jul 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener
Support Child Literacy With Jennifer Egan and Goodreads Support Child Literacy With Jennifer Egan and Goodreads
There's rarely been as enjoyable and community-minded a way to help support children's literacy.
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg
The Girl From F&B: A Portrait of the New India The Girl From F&B: A Portrait of the New India
Esther studied botany and biochemistry, and ended up serving Cokes to arms dealers in Delhi’s Hotel Shangri-La. She is a station holder, occupied and rootless. Welcome to Ind...
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Siddhartha Deb
Raisin Raisin
I dragged my twelve-year-old cousin to see the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun because the hip-hop mogul and rapping bachelor, Diddy, played the starring role. An aspiring rapper gave my cousin his last name and the occasional child support so I thought the boy would geek to see a pop hero in the flesh as Walter Lee. My wife was newly pregnant, and I was rehearsing, like Diddy swapping fictions, surrendering his manicured thug persona, for a more domestic performance. My cousin mostly yawned throughout the play. Except the moment Walter Lee’s tween son stiffened on stage, as if rapt by the sound of a roulette ball. Scene: no one breathes as Walter Lee vacillates, uncertain of obsequity or rage after Lindner offers to buy the family out of the house they’ve purchased in the all-white suburb. Walter might kneel to accept, but he senses the tension in his son’s gaze. I was thinking, for real though, what would Diddy do? “Get rich or die trying,” 50 Cent tells us. But then my father sang the country lyrics, “Don’t get above your raisin’,” when as a kid I vowed to be a bigger man than him. That oppressive fruit dropped big as a medicine ball in my lap meant to check my ego, and I imagined generations wimpling in succession like the conga marching raisins that sang Marvin’s hit song. Silly, I know. Outside the theater, my cousin told me when Diddy was two, they found his hustler dad draping a steering wheel in Central Park, a bullet in his head. I shared what I knew of dreams deferred and Marvin Gaye. (When asked if he loved his son, Marvin Sr. answered, “Let’s just say I didn’t dislike him.”) Beneath the bling of many billion diodes I walked beside the boy through Times Square as if anticipating a magic curtain that would rise, where only one of us would get to take a bow.
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Gregory Pardlo
The Oxford Comma-otion The Oxford Comma-otion
Who gives a [insert expletive] about an Oxford comma?
Jul 11, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Maria Kari
NxtGen: Stuff the Cuts NxtGen: Stuff the Cuts
For those concerned that there's no good protest music out there, the English hip-hop group NxtGen is using rap to take searing aim at the British government’s austerity budg...
Jun 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg