New York Magazine September 21, 2015

1 In the last issue's cover story, Jonathan Chait argued that the world may yet avert the most feared climate outcomes (“The Sunniest Climate-Change Story You’ve Ever Read,” September 7–21). Unsurprisingly, some readers took issue with Chait's sanguine assessment. Vox's David Roberts agreed with Chait that "for the first time in my lifetime, it looks like it might be a real fight" to mitigate climate change, but he disagreed with Chait's overall optimism, in particular his assertion that "the global poor can create a future of economic growth for themselves without burning the world." "That's a lovely idea," Roberts wrote, "and I hope it's true … It is very difficult and expensive to extend the central power grid to poor people in the rural hinterlands of Africa and India ……

MY FRIEND JASON FRY IS A BEST-SELLING author, a former Poynter fellow, and an award-winning journalist. But none of these things matter to him nearly as much as his side project: being a Mets fan. Along with his writing partner Greg Prince, Jason has run the Mets blog Faith and Fear in Flushing for more than a decade—a decade that happens to have been the most painful one in the history of a franchise that knows pain, a decade he's nevertheless managed to chronicle with intelligence and good humor. This is a signature of Mets fans: Kick them in the face for 30 years and they'll feel every thwack, but they'll never truly give up. After all, you gotta believe. Then, on July 8 of this year, Jason lost all…

THERE ARE 191 STUDENTS this year at Long Island's Lynbrook Kindergarten Center, and 22 of them—12 percent—are twins: one set identical, the other ten fraternal. Ellen Postman, the school's principal, tries to (and this year did) split up all the siblings into separate classes, encouraging them to make new friends rather than lean on each other. "And then," she adds, "they're together at recess, when they go out to the playground, and they can share their new relationships." Lots of them.…

BILLY, A LARGE frat brother in a green shirt and white backward hat, cups his hands over his mouth and calls out: "Up next, we have a fund-raiser where we're gonna throw water balloons at Dan Backer." It's Labor Day at American University in Washington, D.C., and Backer is standing with his wife and two small boys on the edge of a group of about 25 fraternity and sorority members wearing bathing suits and jorts. "He won McCutcheon v. FEC," Billy says. "And—long story short—he is the reason campaign-finance law is what it is right now." The students respond with haphazard applause and a few boos. Backer, in a blue wicking shirt and trunks, puts on his goggles and takes a seat in a lawn chair across from the crowd.…

Oreorigins It was introduced in 1912, and was produced in its early years at the National Biscuit Company complex on Ninth Avenue that now houses Chelsea Market. Redesigned in the 1920s, it received the familiar ridge pattern in 1952. Lately, it’s lost its lard (making it kosher) and trans fats. Cookies and Cheese? Nabisco, after mergers left it part of Kraft Foods, was spun off in 2012 within a new snack-food company called Mondelez. (It also owns Cadbury, Trident, and Tang.) Last month, Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management—having watched this year’s Kraft-Heinz merger—bought 7.5 percent of Mondelez. Some observers say he’s looking to merge it back into Kraft; others say he sees a company where cost-cutting will produce big returns. Brand Extensions, in Green and Red Spinoff flavors,…

IN 2012, KANYE WEST successfully halted the distribution of a sex tape reportedly depicting him in flagrante with a Kim Kardashian look-alike. Instead, TMZ described the two versions its editors had seen: "Both tapes are impressively long—the first is roughly 20 minutes and the second is more than 40. And we're talking constant action. Seriously, the guy takes no breaks. It's incredible. Almost Sting-like." I sent the link to two friends. The male friend replied in awe. The female replied with skepticism. "Even if that were possible, it'd be at least 20 minutes too much of sex." How many minutes of sex is enough, and how many is too few? In public and pop culture, tales of sex that lasts all night long tend to draw low whistles and nods…