Today, Other Magazines reads the New Republic, Newsweek, New York, The New Yorker, the Weekly Standard, Wired, and the Chronicle of Higher Education to find out what’s worth your time—and what’s not.
Must Read Two years ago, veteran New York Times business reporter Kurt Eichenwald was hailed for exposing the dark underbelly of child pornography and for rescuing a teen from its clutches. Today, according to a fascinating feature in New York, his life and career lie in tatters.— B.F.
Best Politics Profile
The Weekly Standard’s cover story colorfully worships Republican political hack Roger Stone, who’s had a hand in eight presidential campaigns.—D.S.
Best Political Comparison
A Newsweek analysis looks to the silver screen for insight into the current presidential race in a feature that explores parallels between “sad, woman warrior” Queen Elizabeth and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. While both succeed at concealing their inmost thoughts, Hillary lacks one tool the queen had in spades: rage.—B.F.
Most Scathing Editorial
The editors of the New Republic have it out with congressional Democrats, calling them “losers” for allowing their recent political advantages to “dissolve overnight.” How can the party get back in shape? “Grow a pair.”—D.S.
Best Education Piece
With a lengthy and well-explained account of how endowments operate, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the movement among Republicans to force wealthy universities to spend a greater percentage of their endowments to defray tuition costs.—M.S.
Buzz Generator
New York brings together ex-drug kingpins Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas (both featured in the upcoming American Gangster film) for their first conversation in 30 years, showing “a familiarity that bordered on a kind of love. Or at least respect for a fellow tycoon.”—B.F.
Best Culture Piece
A piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education notes recent pop-culture interest in Lewis Carroll’s relationships with little girls and defends the Alice in Wonderland author from accusations of pedophilia.—M.S.
Best Pop-Psychology Piece
With news that at least one of the California wildfires was set deliberately, a Newsweek feature steps inside the mind of arsonists and looks at the angers, passions, and needs that cause people to start fires.—B.F.
Best Technology Piece
Wired reports on Shannen Rossmiller, a Montana mother with a “remarkable talent for chatting up terrorists.” Posing as an al-Qaida soldier, Rossmiller trolls online forums for possible recruits and has helped officials locate potential terrorists abroad and in the United States. Like early hackers, the article notes, Rossmiller employs a combination of technical savvy and “social engineering”: All it really takes, she says, is the right attitude.—E.G.
Best Health Piece
Newsweek’s cover looks at the social and institutional changes being rolled out by parents and educators in response to the rising number of American children allergic to common foods. Meanwhile, scientists are desperate for a peanut-allergy vaccine.—B.F.
Best Environmental Piece
The New Yorker paints a thoroughly fascinating portrait of an anti-whaling pirate and takes us on an adventure onboard the Farley Mowat as it tries to stop a Japanese whaling ship.
Best “Best Of” List
Wired looks at the cream of the conspiracy-theory crop, including the belief that shape-shifting lizard-people run the world. Famous alleged lizards include George W. Bush and the British royal family.—E.G.
Best Quote
In the New Republic, Diane Sawyer asks Jenna Bush if it’s “tricky” to mention sex in her book when she “comes from an administration that believes in abstinence.” Bush’s response: “I don’t come from an administration. I’m his daughter, you know?”—D.S.
Best Cocktail-Party Factoid
The New Yorker reveals that “[t]he average new car gets fewer miles to the gallon than Henry Ford’s Model T got.”—G.H.
