1) “Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Private equity firms are trying to cash out their investments. Uh-oh,” by Daniel Gross. Though the stock market continues to rise, the run might not continue for long. A bellwether: Big private firms are offloading shares in companies they control.
2) “Harry and Louise, Meet Marx and Engels: The health insurers stumble into an argument for a public option,” by Timothy Noah. Health insurance premiums could get out of hand and rise exponentially over the next 10 years, unless the government steps in and does something.
3) “Where the Mildly Depressed Things Are: Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the Sendak classic has too many mopey monsters, not enough Max,” by Dana Stevens. The movie version of the children’s classic wastes time creating dark back stories instead of focusing on Max’s adventure.
4) “Chamber of Horrors: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. Here’s how to do it,” by Eliot Spitzer. The chamber promotes bad fiscal policy and wastes corporate cash. And guess what: It’s fueled by your pension fund.
5) “Pig Pile: The bizarre alliance of the far left and far right against swine flu vaccinations,” by Christopher Beam. Fears of chronic disease and even death have united the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Jim Carrey against swine flu shots.
6) “Worst Framing Device Ever: How the misbegotten phrase public option has undermined health care reform,” by Ron Rosenbaum. The “empty, vacuous, mystifying … counterproductive phrase” is hurting health care reform.
7) “Facial Profiling: Can you tell if a man is dangerous by the shape of his mug?” by Dave Johns. After falling out of fashion, the practice of determining a person’s character by studying his face is once again gaining traction.
8) “Sexually Transmitted Injection: Why vaccinate girls but not boys against HPV?” by William Saletan. Even though HPV can cause several diseases in boys too, researchers suggest the best prevention strategy is to target girls.
9) “Saving Face: A chick-lit novel written in real time,” by Dahlia Lithwick. In Chapter 17, Erica gets lots of praise for her performance on CNN, but marital tensions continue to mount.
10) “You Charged Me All Night Long: Is it a sin to leave your cell phone plugged in overnight?” by Nina Shen Rastogi. Leaving your cellular phone plugged into the wall isn’t the energy drain it’s chalked up to be.
The Week’s Best From the “ Slatest”
1) After receiving pressure from black football players and the players union, Rush Limbaugh was dumped from a group attempting to buy the St. Louis Rams.
2) Finland has decided to make it a legal right for its citizens to have Internet access.
3) New Orleans residents are not happy with President Obama’s short visit, his first to the area ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
4) Italian Secret Service officials neglected to tell the French they were paying off Taliban leaders, potentially causing the deaths of 10 French soldiers last year.
5) Due to negative inflation, President Obama wants to give Social Security recipients a one-time $250 check.
