Blog Profile / Slate - Books
| URL : | http://www.slate.com/id/2930/landing/1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Entertainment / Books | |
| Posts on Regator: | 916 | |
| Posts / Week: | 4.6 | |
| Archived Since: | July 14, 2009 | |
Blog Post Archive
Freeze!
Last year, a 38-year-old friend sent me a link to an article titled “My Secret Grief: Over 35, Single, and Childless” by Savvy Auntie author Melanie Notkin about her heartbreak over not having children with the email subject line “She...Show More Summary
The Barack Obama Is Richard Nixon Gabfest
Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there. Or follow us @SlateGabfest!
Tax-Free Like You and Me
A little more than a year ago, around the time nascent Tea Party organizations started getting Proust-length questionnaires from the IRS, there emerged a scandal about political groups winning tax-exempt status. Left-wing groups. The...Show More Summary
Scandal Jujitsu
What can a president do when he’s hit simultaneously by three scandals?
How to Frame an Abortionist (VIDEO)
As Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell went on trial for murder in late April, Live Action, a pro-life group, began releasing hidden-camera videos recorded inside other abortion clinics. The videos were shot by pregnant “investigators”...Show More Summary
What’s a Vulcan?
Slate sent two staffers who have never seen a single episode or movie in the Star Trek franchise to see J.J. Abram’s Star Trek Into Darkness. Note: Spoilers galore below, insofar as our intrepid viewers understood what was going on. Click here if you’d prefer to read Dana Stevens’ spoiler-free review.
What “Social Welfare” Work Do Tea Party Groups Perform?
President Obama demanded and received the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS on Wednesday. The agency gave special scrutiny to conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) status, which is reserved for “social welfare” organizations. Many Explainer readers have asked the obvious question: What social welfare functions do Tea Party groups perform?
I Was Promised a Cover-Up
I was told there was going to be a cover-up. After reading the 100 pages of emails related to the Benghazi media talking points, I’m hard-pressed to find evidence for the most damning accusations against the president and his staff. If they were involved, they were once again leading from behind.
How to Superpower the Immune System
For all their powers, superheroes aren’t necessarily the healthiest crew. Spider-Man is weakened by a nasty flu the night Green Goblin throws his girlfriend from a bridge. Superman is almost vanquished by a “meteor-borne Kryptonian fungus.” After Captain Marvel seals a tank of nerve gas with his bare hands, he eventually dies of cancer.
Mutual Contempt
Rep. Darrell Issa was almost finished with his question to Attorney General Eric Holder when he suddenly allowed his witness a Moment. That was dangerous. Reporters like Moments. They write our stories for us, and allow us more freeShow More Summary
Let Me Tell You All About My Narcissism
The most recent Time cover story calls the generation of young adults known as millennials “lazy, entitled narcissists.” Writer Joel Stein points out, “The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as highShow More Summary
The Unappreciated Senses
Taste and smell disorders can be devastating, but often such problems get no treatment. Carl Philpott, director of the United Kingdom's only clinic devoted to taste and smell disorders, explains how these conditions can completely change your experience of the world.
Intellectual Property Rights Gone Wild
The Supreme Court recently began deliberations in a case that highlights a deeply problematic issue concerning intellectual property rights: Can human genes—your genes—be patented? Put another way, should someone essentially be permitted to own the right, say, to test whether you have a set of genes that imply a higher than 50 percent probability of developing breast cancer?
Don’t School Bus Drivers Undergo Background Checks?
Ariel Castro was charged Wednesday with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape in the Cleveland, abductions now dominating national news. Castro was a school bus driver from 1991 to 2012, during which time he was accused of domestic violence. Do they perform background checks on school bus drivers?
Dodgeball Should Not Be Part of Any Curriculum, Ever
As a kid, I wanted desperately to be good at sports. This was not because I enjoyed playing them. I did not. It was because I’d learned that physical education classes were key to my social survival. I knew my failure to make a basketball hit the backboard would have ramifications throughout the school year. Show More Summary
Stand Down and Deliver
Rep. Jason Chaffetz finally choked up. When his turn came at today’s House Oversight hearings on “Benghazi”—the catchall name for the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the consulate in that Libyan city, and its aftermath—the Utah congressman got to prod Gregory Hicks, former deputy chief of mission in Libya, on the timeline. Show More Summary
“A Tranquilized Polar Bear Rising Through an Autumn Sky”
I’ve known Chris Funk of Black Prairie since 2003, when his other band, the Decemberists, was just starting to take off. By the time I started work on my new book, Wild Ones, in 2010, Chris and several other of the Decemberists had formed Black Prairie. Show More Summary
The Last Buffalo Hunt
In 1957, a curator at the Smithsonian was dismantling the museum’s exhibit of six taxidermy buffalo when he found a mysterious metal box buried in the fake prairie ground. Inside was a handwritten note, dated March 7, 1888.
Are We Good?
When he was 35, Marc Maron was unhappily married and had a serious problem with drugs and alcohol. Then he met a beautiful aspiring comic who said she was a fan and that she could help him get sober. He fell hard for this 23-year-old, and they began an affair. Show More Summary
The Weight of the Presidency
Chris Christie underwent lap band surgery over President's Day weekend because the three-day weekend gave him time to recuperate, and because no decision he makes can be free of some connection to the presidency. The New Jersey governor checked in for the weight-loss procedure under an assumed name and he was out later that Saturday. Show More Summary