What Rebecca is reading. Not what Rebecca likes. Not what Rebecca finds interesting. Just what Rebecca is reading.
State of Cool - NYTimes.com
Hillary is not going to President Obama’s Democratic convention in Charlotte. Evidently, she’s going to wait for her own. There were intriguing developments on the presidential trail Tuesday, and I…
The Bounty of a Desolate Place
Last weekend, I graduated with an MFA in creative writing from Georgia College, here in Milledgeville. For the celebration, my mom drove down from DC, picking up her sister Cindy on the way, in…
Living at home — and liking it - latimes.com
It was the week before my 23rd birthday when it hit me. "You know," I said casually to my mom as we drove into town to get pedicures, "I don't think I've hung out with anyone my age in over a…
What “Mad Men” Shows About American Pop Culture : The New Yorker
When the new season of “Mad Men” began, just a few weeks ago, it carried with it an argument about whether the spell it casts is largely a product of its beautifully detailed…
Ashley Judd Slaps Media in the Face for Speculation Over Her ‘Puffy’ Appearance - The Daily Beast
The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens…
The Kingston Lounge: Central State Hospital, Milledgeville, GA
View of a hallway and into a bathroom in the Walker Building, Central State Hospital.Central State Hospital, formerly known as the Georgia Lunatic Asylum, the State Asylum for the Insane, and the…
Culture Desk: Settling the Score : The New Yorker
In January, I wrote about my disappointment that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had chosen to nominate neither Cliff Martinez nor Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Best Original…
What We’re Reading: Buzzfeed, “Pulphead,” Chekhov, and More : The New Yorker
The lists on Buzzfeed seem designed to rouse us momentarily from a late-afternoon slump and then quickly shame us into getting back to work (better not to be caught by one’s colleagues paging…
This American Lie | The New Republic
'The events described in these stories are real," humorist David Sedaris wrote in the introductory note to Naked, his 1997 collection of nonfiction essays. The New York Times was convinced: When…
What happened in Vegas—By John D'Agata and Jim Fingal (Harper's Magazine)
From The Lifespan of a Fact, by writer John D’Agata and Jim Fingal, published in February 2012 by W. W. Norton. In 2005, as an intern at The Believer, Fingal began fact-checking…
The Art of Fact-Checking : The New Yorker
Which are more important: true words, or beautiful words? “The Lifespan of a Fact,” a book by John D’Agata, a writer, and Jim Fingal, a former intern and fact-checker at The…
A Hand- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More
A hand is not four fingers and a thumb. Nor is it palm and knuckles, not ligaments or the fat's yellow pillow, not tendons, star of the wristbone, meander of veins. A hand is not the thick thatch of…
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near…
Virginia ultrasound law: women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason - Slate Magazine
A Virginia law would require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, whether medically necessary or not. This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require…
The Sophomore Novel
The Sophomore Novel A writer ponders publicity stunts By Pauls Toutonghi Apr 13, 2012 Tweet
Buildings with Libraries - A Soft-Spoken Amenity - NYTimes.com
BOOK CLUB Residents gather in the library of Toren condominium in downtown Brooklyn, one of a growing number of buildings with an in-house library. More Photos » WHEN Martin Semjen fir
Working Women’s Fantasies - The Daily Beast
If every era gets the sadist it deserves, it may not be surprising that we have ended up with Christian Grey, the hero of the runaway bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey. He is not twisted or frightening…
Two of a Kind, Photographer Couples: Carla Winn and Jim Winn | The Visual Student
This is the fourth part of a series about photographer couples, called “Two of a Kind.†This post features Carla Winn and Jim Winn. View their website here.…
To Tourists, Greek Debt Crisis Is a Distant Concept - NYTimes.com
ATHENS Despite all the gloom surrounding Greece and its battered economy, the sun has been shining on the country s tourism industry, offering one of the few glimmers of hope for recovery. Greeks…
Manhattanhenge: The Sun, The City And A Special Rendezvous : The Two-Way : NPR
Manhattanhenge in July 2009. At sunset tonight Manhattan's grid will match up perfectly with the sun, producing a dazzling, golden display on each one of the city's streets. It happens twice a year…
Milwaukee Segregation: Milwaukee earns dubious distinction of most segregated city in America - chicagotribune.com
WITI-TV, MILWAUKEE— New census data shows Milwaukee is the most segregated city in America, and many are not surprised by this information. This new data has long been the perception, since…
5 New Mysteries Return To The Scene Of The Crime : NPR
Every summer, for the past 33 years, a widely scattered group of close friends my husband made in summer camp in the 1960s has rented a beach house on the Jersey Shore for two weeks. I was enfolded…
The Rumpus Saturday Essay: Me Be Pretty One Day - The Rumpus.net
When I was younger and lonelier and knew more about other people than I did about myself, I thought what I wanted was to be pretty. I thought of it as an existential status, pretty. I thought: if I…
“Welcome To Bushwick a.k.a. The Crackcident” | Girls | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club
So much of Girls is filtered through the point-of-view of Hannah Horvath that we’re only really beginning to understand just how much of it actually is. If I were a betting man, I’d…
Lena Dunham's Looks, the Misogyny of the 'Girls' Backlash, and Staying In Your Assigned Story | ThinkProgress
In a much-circulated comment in a thread about this week’s episode of Girls, the AV Club’s Todd VanDerWerff, in response to a commenter declaring that Lena Dunham needs to be funnier…
News from The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It took Mario Parker-Milligan less than a semester to decide that he was paying too many fees to Higher One, the company hired by his college to pay out students' financial aid on…
Politwoops - Deleted tweets from politicians
Sure, we all tweet things we don't mean to share, but now politicians have no way to hide them. Discover tweets that your politicians shared and then promptly deleted. US edition produced by:…
KEEGAN: The Opposite of Loneliness | Cross Campus | Yale Daily News
Marina Keegan '12. Photo by Facebook. The piece below was written by Marina Keegan '12 for a special edition of the News distributed at the class of 2012's commencement exercises last week. Keegan…
Introducing Page-Turner : The New Yorker
Walking the halls of The New Yorker, conversations about books can be heard trailing out of office doors. Just the other day, two colleagues argued—cordially, but with some heat in their…
Howl, Parts I & II- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More
For Carl Solomon I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded…
Queen Latifah comes out at Gay Pride Parade
Queen Latifah's Girlfriend Jeanette Jenkins Must Be Proud! blog.flyingcows.co.cc Queen Latifah performed at the 2012 Long Beach Gay Pride Event. Queen Latifah performed at the 2012 Long Beach Gay…
Why I'm Leaving Facebook : The New Yorker
I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand…
Isaac Fitzgerald: In Love in San Francisco | berfrois
by Isaac Fitzgerald I came to this city in love and with everything I owned stuffed into three bags — it was San Francisco, so six people in a three-bedroom apartment seemed like something…
With Fajas, Tight as Corsets, a Shortcut to Hourglass Figure Is Rediscovered - NYTimes.com
The faja, used by liposuction patients, is making a comeback as a girdle popular among women who want hourglass figures. Kathy Vera tried one on in Queens on Tuesday. Blanca Murillo’s morning…
Israeli Girl at Center of Tension Over Religious Extremism - NYTimes.com
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in Beit Shemesh, Israel, rallied around a sign that reads in Hebrew: “Women are asked not to linger in this area.” BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The latest…
Bishops Group to Investigate Girl Scouts - NYTimes.com
The Girl Scouts are facing an official inquiry by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. At issue are concerns about program materials that some Catholics find offensive, and assertions…
Soraya Chemaly: A Message to Girls About Religious Men Who Fear You
Dear Girls, You are powerful beyond words, because you threaten to unravel the control of corrupt men who abuse their authority. In the United States last week there were people who wouldn't let boys…
Kristen Howerton: The Only Mommy War Worth Waging
If you watch the trends of media, whether it be print, internet, or TV, you've probably noticed that every couple of months there is a new version of the "mommy wars" being played out. Last month's…
Do-Gooder Buys Out A Closing Kmart To Donate $200K Worth Of Items To Charity - The Consumerist
(MSNBC.com) A Kentucky man was scoping out a Kmart set to close for good, trying to snag himself some good deals on the discounted items for his own business. But while he was at the register, a…
TODAY Health - Diet, Fitness and Wellness Blog | TODAY.com Blogs - Does organic food turn people into jerks?
Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of organic food snobs, but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she'd stumbled onto the set of "Portlandia.""I stopped at a market to…
The Trouble With Prince Charming Or He Who Trespassed Against Us - The Rumpus.net
We all know the common fairy tale. There’s a man and a woman—rarely, if ever, do we see stories about a woman and a woman or a man and a man—who must overcome some obstacle to…
Rookie » How to Power-Pack
Read this, and then book a vacation. You deserve it. You know when you’re going on a trip, and you’re soooooo excited, and you sit down and make list after detailed list of every item…
Did Ira Glass excessively shame Mike Daisey? - Erik Wemple - The Washington Post
Did Glass overstep with Daisey? Nah. (Stan Barouh - AP) When “This America Life” aired its legendary retraction over the episode in which it broadcast Mike Daisey’s monologue on…
‘This American Life’ cites ‘fabrications’ in documentary on Apple suppliers - The Washington Post
An acclaimed radio documentary about life in the Chinese factories that make Apple Inc.’s products contained “numerous fabrications” and included invented characters and incidents,…
The David Sedaris dilemma: A fine line between ‘realish’ and real - The Washington Post
Public radio has been good for David Sedaris, and vice versa. In 1992, the then-unknown writer started to turn tales about his quirky upbringing and odd-job work history into the stuff of hilarious,…
The Writer in the Family - NYTimes.com
So there I stood at the front of my granddaughter Jessica’s fourth-grade classroom, still as a glazed dog, while Jessie introduced me to her classmates, to whom I was about to speak. “This is my…
My Thesis Is Not a Book: Confessions of a Lutheran Schoolgirl | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction
This June marks the end of my graduate work in Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program. As the culmination of my time as a creative nonfiction student, I am compiling a thesis to…
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #98: Monsters And Ghosts - The Rumpus.net
Dear Sugar,My mother left my father the month I was born. She remarried and had my brother two years later. My stepfather (the only father I knew) committed suicide when I was five years old. My…
Go Ahead: Write About Your Parents, Again | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction
I have a friend, a single man in his late forties, who still broods over the love he didn’t get—still doesn’t get—from his emotionally inaccessible parents. They are the…
Control Reckless For-Profit Colleges - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
José Cruz oversees higher education policy and practice at the Education Trust. He is the former vice president for student affairs at the University of Puerto Rico. The for-profit college…
Guest column: Student loan debt is an economic bubble about to burst | MLive.com
(Bridge archive photo) By Evan Montague/Lansing Community College Graduation stories abound this time of year, inspiring students and educators alike with the promise of a career and personal…
Walmart's Massive Bribery Scandal: What Happens Now? - Ben W. Heineman Jr. - Business - The Atlantic
Revelations that the company may have hushed up evidence of kickbacks to Mexican officials could drag down past and present executives. Reuters Senior Walmart executives stopped a…
Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating: a brief history of Applebee’s - Slate Magazine
Jupiterimages One thing I almost never see at Applebee’s, not in my first week or anytime after, are customers. I hear the one-line stories dropped by waitstaff and managers between runs to…
The New Celebrity of Mrs. Don Draper -- Vulture
Just being the hot new girl on TV’s most obsessed-over show doesn’t automatically make you recognizable. That’s what Jessica Paré discovered at April’s Asia Pacific…
Mother's Day 2012: Does The Holiday Give Wives A Reason To Cheat?
Mother's Day: Does the holiday give women a reason to cheat? For the past four years, infidelity-based matchmaking site AshleyMadison.com has seen an influx of married women signing up for its…
Online Dish: More Women Cheat Day After Mother's Day - KIAH
Mother's Day is this Sunday, so listen up fellas if you don't want your baby mama to stray from t
Is Twitter ruining journalism or are journalists ruining Twitter? | Poynter.
The Awl | Calbuzz | San Francisco Bay Guardian Twitter’s detractors are mounting a spring offensive. Choire Sicha had a revelation Wednesday as he watched journalists live-tweet Rupert…
On Pregnancy And Privacy And Fear - The Rumpus.net
My husband, Devan, wants to know when he can stop lying to everyone he cares about. He’s talking about the baby, the fact that we’re having one (if all goes well) in early October.…
U.S. News - Viewing child porn on the Web 'legal' in New York, state appeals court finds
Viewing child pornography online isn't a crime, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of a college professor whose work computer was found to have stored more than a hundred illegal…
Woman gone Wild: Will Cheryl Strayed lead moms down the hiking path? - CSMonitor.com
One woman gone Wild: A mom who wants to follow best-selling author Cheryl strayed down the hiking path, to be one-on-one with nature and rediscover her inner-voice and strength.
10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You - Yahoo! Finance
Class of 2012,I became sick of commencement speeches at about your age. My first job out of college was writing speeches for the governor of Maine. Every spring, I would offer extraordinary tidbits…
Maryland Episcopal Church Leaders Forgive, Offer Funeral Services For Homeless Shooter Of Priest And Assistant
Rev. Mary Marguerite Kohn was killed by homeless gunman along with Brenda Brewington. ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- The Episcopal Diocese o
Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal - NYTimes.com
President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage during an interview on Wednesday. WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ended nearly two years
My First Time, Twice - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
Ariel Levy on the rush to lose her virginity at fourteen, recalling: “Nobody would gasp if they heard a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old had lost her virginity. The clock was ticking.”…
Olympics 2012: branding 'police' to protect sponsors' exclusive rights | Sport | The Guardian
Victoria Pendleton will not be able to tweet about tucking into her Weetabix on the morning of race day, or post a video message to fans from her room in the athletes' village.Pub landlords will be…
Homophobic? Maybe You’re Gay - NYTimes.com
WHY are political and religious figures who campaign against gay rights so often implicated in sexual encounters with same-sex partners? In recent years, Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader who…
NY Times: Homophobic? Maybe You’re Gay | I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists
You can’t “fix” gay. And being gay isn’t something you would should want to fix any more than you’d want to fix being heterosexual; after all – if…
A Book About Bookshelves To Put On Your Very Own Bookshelf : The Picture Show : NPR
You may have read about the demise of the book. You know, the thing that has been around for more than a millennium, dead trees, covered in ink. A repository for the exchange of ideas, and stories, a…
For Chrissakes, There Is Nothing Wrong With You: A Dating Manifesto
As modern ladies of marrying age, our trusty inadequacy paradigm has always gone something like this: "I'm too fat for the men I like." "I'm too ugly to get married." "I'm too old to find a guy."…
What's the matter with white people? - 2012 Elections - Salon.com
One of the burdens of blackness, W.E.B. DuBois famously wrote, was facing down an omnipresent question from the wider society: “How does it feel to be a problem?” I’ve been…
A Teen's Brave Response to "I'm Christian, Unless You're Gay"
I received the following email today in response to my post I’m Christian, Unless You’re Gay. I had decided a couple months ago that it was time to let the whole thing rest, but this…
I'm Christian, unless you're gay.
Today I want to write about something that has bothered me for the better part of a decade. I’ve carved out no fewer than a dozen drafts of this post, all strangely unalike, all ultimately…
Ariz. House OKs ban on abortions after 20 weeks - seattlepi.com
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House on Tuesday approved the state's latest anti-abortion legislation, a sweeping bill that generally bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and institutes new…
What Apple's Ebook Fiasco Means for Amazon and the Book Business
Now that the Department of Justice is officially probing the alleged price-fixing conspiracy on ebooks between Apple and many of the major publishing houses, some clear winners and losers have begun…
Wisconsin State Senator Says Money Is Less Important To Women
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly repealed his state’s equal pay law last week, a decision that will make it harder for victims of wage discrimination to sue for lost earnings and back…
SIGHTSEEING: Mini-Europe | The Cornell Daily Sun
Located 25 minutes via metro outside the center of Brussels is Mini-Europe. At a glance, it appears part cool miniature golf course, part Epcot and part small child entertainment. Upon entering,…
Hillary Clinton Thanks 'Texts From Hillary' Guys For The 'LOLZ'
WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, Hillary Clinton took a few minutes away from her texting (and all her other duties as secretary of state) and met with the two guys who have turned her into the lates
Phyllis Schlafly Warns Men: Don't Date Feminists - Conservative 'godmother' slams liberals over contraception flap
Why I Loved Being Called a MILF Some find the term 'gross,' but Wilson Diehl needed to hear it (NEWSER) - Since becoming a mom, Wilson Diehl had “internalized the wildly sexist notion that…
Soraya Chemaly: 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts
This week the Georgia State Legislature debated a bill in the House, that would make it necessary for some women to carry stillborn or dying fetuses until they 'naturally' go into labor. In arguing…
Canadian penny drops in federal budget as Jim Flaherty signals end of one cent coin | News | National Post
National Post Staff Mar 30, 2012 – 9:42 AM ET | Last Updated: Mar 30, 2012 9:45 AM ET Canadian penny coins will stop circulating later in 2012 Penny costs 1.6 cents to produce each one…
The Greatest Girl Characters of Young Adult Literature - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire
This kicks of our new series, Y.A. for Grownups, in which we talk about Y.A. literature—from the now nostalgia-infused stories we devoured as kids to more contemporary tomes being read by…
Lauren Oliver to Write First Adult Book - NYTimes.com
Lauren Oliver, the 29-year-old author of best-selling teenage novels, will write her first novel for an adult audience, her publisher said on Thursday. Ecco, part of HarperCollins, has acquired…
Video: Complete SXSW Rock Room set | Rolling Stone
Florida punks Hot Water music played a fierce set yesterday at Rolling Stone's Rock Room day party at the SXSW festival. In this video of the full performance, the band rip into a few old favorites…
The High Court’s Body-Cavity Fixation—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)
In a case that may summarize conservative judicial attitudes toward human dignity, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Supreme Court has decided on the claim of Albert Florence, a man…
Human Beauty by Albert Goldbarth | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
Tuesday If you write a poem about love... the love is a bird,the poem is an origami bird. If you write a poem about death...the death is a terrible fire, the poem is an offering of paper cutout…
A woman walks into a rape, uh, bar « Fugitivus
A woman walks into a rape, uh, bar. She rapes the rapist, “Hey, rape kind of rape do you think I should rape?” The rapist rapes, “Don’t ask rape! I’m just a…
Starbucks Tailors Its Experience to Fit to European Tastes - NYTimes.com
PARIS — On a recent sunny morning in this city’s chic Marais district, Marion Bayod squeezed behind a tiny table at Le Cactus, a neighborhood cafe she has frequented for years. She…
5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women | Cracked.com
If you're not the type to keep up with ugly, soul-killing political controversies, let me catch you up: A while back, hugely popular political commentator Rush Limbaugh lost a bunch of advertisers…
A necessary change in policy : blog
At reddit we care deeply about not imposing ours or anyone elses’ opinions on how people use the reddit platform. We are adamant about not limiting the ability to use the reddit platform even…
The story of Keep Calm and Carry On
You've seen the now-famous Keep Calm and Carry On poster and its many many variations, but did you know that this British WWII poster was never distributed to the public and was discovered only…
Liz Phair on Why Lana Del Rey Scares Rock's Boys Club - Speakeasy - WSJ
Lana del Rey performs during her concert in Amsterdam, on November 10, 2011. Rolling Stone asked me to speak about Lana Del Rey. I wanted to know how big my participation in the piece would…
Finally, Good News About School Lunches - NYTimes.com
Thirty-two million kids — 10 percent of the American population, and the future of the country — are about to start eating better. That’s the bottom line of the new Department…
Albany Bill Would Raise the New York State Minimum Wage to $8.50 - NYTimes.com
The Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park is no more, but the focus it brought to income inequality is having an impact in Albany and beyond. The Assembly speaker,
Prostitute Wishes Girls Wouldn't Admire Her - National - The Atlantic Wire
Under the pseudonym "Charlotte Shane," a young prostitute chronicles her experiences on a blog entitled, "Nightmare Brunette." Her aim, she explains at Salon, in addition to needing a mental…
You’ve Got Problems: Sex Worker Childhoods
By RedSofa on Flickr It’s supposed to be common knowledge that I ended up in my job as an escort because, as a child, I suffered some serious emotional damage. But from the inside looking out,…
Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class - NYTimes.com
People flooded Foxconn Technology with résumés at a 2010 job fair in Henan Province, China. When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California…
7 Books With Personality: Nancy Pearl's 2011 Picks : NPR
December 13, 2011 Listen to the Story Morning Edition [7 min 19 sec]
