Hi folks. In case you missed them, and are looking for some salvos to soothe your addled mind and soul this weekend, here are some things we've published this week, in the great Baffler Web Experiment of Early 2014.
On Monday, for St. Patrick's Day, we resurrected
JIM ARNDORFER's timeless "
McSploitation," which examined our culture's curious commodification of All Things Irish. Wednesday's "Fed Day" inspired us to return to another gem from our archives,
JIM NEWELL's harrowing tale of competing in an economic-policy competition in front of Big Bernanke himself: "
I Was a Teenage Gramlich" is as insightful as it is hilarious.
A truly baffling column in the
New York Times about the 40-hour work week gave us the occasion to return to
CHRIS LEHMANN's essay "
Let Them Eat Dogma," from Issue 18 of the magazine. "New Deal denialism, much like creationism, entails blotting out whole swaths of contradictory evidence-not merely the bulk of FDR's contemporaneous record, but also the decades of growth and comparative stability that succeeded it," Lehmann wrote. Well, luckily, they have someone for that.
From our current issue, "
Play, Dammit!" by
HEATHER HAVRILESKY explores what happens when kids play like adults and adults play like kids; while those categories gradually blur, it seems like no one's having very much fun.
Also from Issue 24,
ANDREW J. BACEVICH took a look back at Tom Clancy's legacy. When Clancy died, the
Washington Post said that Clancy's books "made the military cool again." But is that necessarily a good thing? That piece also features the Clancy portrait above, expertly illustrated by
VICTOR JUHASZ.
Over on the BLOG this week, JIM NEWELL skewered the NRA's obstructionist tactics and billionaires who cry "Nazi," and celebrated the death of the conservative book industry; CHRIS BRAY questioned some empty promises from the left, as well as the morality of contracting out a country's killing. Meanwhile, KATHLEEN GEIER brought a critical eye to Rolling Stone's interview with "regular guy" Bill Gates.
We've also introduced a new morning-link-roundup feature on the blog, called "Daily Bafflements." (Here's today's post.) Tell us what you like or hate about it, or send us some link suggestions here.
