Indholdsfortegnelse for December 16, 2022 i The Week Magazine

The rail industry is making record profits off the backs of its exhausted workers—with the blessing of our elected government. The labor agreement forced on rail workers last week gives them a decent raise but not one day of the paid sick leave they requested (see Best U.S. Columns, p.12). That means the conductors who drive the trains and the laborers who maintain the tracks will continue to be penalized any time they stay home with a fever or rush a child to the ER. It’s not like the railways can’t afford to offer benefits. The industry made $21.2 billion in profit during the first three quarters of this year—an all-time high. Guaranteeing workers seven paid sick days would only cost it $321 million a year, nibbling away less than…

Good week for: Small-game hunters, after New York City began a search for a “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty” individual to be the new “rat czar.” The job listing says the successful applicant will have “a general aura of badassery.” Japanese schoolchildren, who as of this week may resume talking during lunchtime, which was banned by the government at the start of the pandemic. Loud talking is still verboten, however. Specificity, after a lawyer for Florida governor Ron DeSantis—who has called Florida a state where “woke goes to die”—was required to define “woke” in a court hearing. The lawyer said the much-reviled term means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Bad week for: Yuks, after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito joked…

Madrid A worker at the Ukrainian Embassy in Spain was injured last week when a letter bomb addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador blew up, one of six sent to top officials across Spain. Explosives were also sent to the U.S. Embassy, the Spanish prime minister and defense minister, a Spanish weapons manufacturer, and a military base. Authorities said they were investigating whether the letter bombs were related to Spain’s military support for Ukraine. Meanwhile, blood-stained envelopes carrying severed animal parts have also begun showing up at Ukrainian diplomatic missions. The embassy in Spain found the first such envelope, containing a sheep’s eye, and 16 other consulates and embassies got similar deliveries this week. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the packages part of “a well-planned campaign of terror and…

Writer Junot Díaz was a rising star in American fiction before a MeToo accusation made him a pariah, said Ben Smith in Semafor. The author of 2007’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won a Pulitzer Prize and landed a tenured position at MIT. But in 2018, a young writer named Zinzi Clemmons accused Díaz of cornering her at a campus event so he could “forcibly kiss” her. Díaz maintained his innocence. “I had this fantasy, and I think it was a delusion, that everything would be looked at and everything would be sorted out very quickly, in detail,” says Díaz, 53. Instead, the Dominican-American writer was described in media outlets as having committed “sexual misconduct,” and in ensuing months, other women accused him of being a “known,…

Charles Cooke National Review If there was any remaining doubt about Donald Trump’s intentions, said Charles Cooke, he is now “informing us that he aspires to be a tyrant.” Last week, an enraged Trump declared on his social media site that because Hunter Biden’s laptop didn’t receive more coverage before the 2020 election, the 45th president should be declared “the rightful winner” and reinstalled in the White House. Election fraud of this magnitude, Trump said, “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Some Republicans are dismissing his latest lunacy by saying Trump—who has already declared his 2024 candidacy—wouldn’t have the ability to terminate the Constitution even if he were re-elected. But his unhinged threat suggests mental illness, and should be his…

“Shortly after the election in 2016, a friend remarked to me, ‘It feels like the whole country has taken LSD.’ It’s true. There has been something hallucinatory and psychotic about the past half decade or so: a sense of reality melting and a stomach-churning, vertiginous glimpse into the abyss. Sometimes it feels as if we are on the verge of entering a Who Framed Roger Rabbit world where cartoons will walk among us. A game-show host billionaire president beloved by Nazis living in a dark tower with his name stamped on it in Midtown? A Black rapper turned Hitler-lover? It’s all getting so stylized as to approach caricature.” John Ganz in his Substack newsletter…

GERMANY Sabine Rennefanz Der Spiegel Germany has been treating its Eastern citizens as a source of cheap labor for far too long, said Sabine Rennefanz, and they are starting to demand better. The five states that made up the former Communist East Germany were reabsorbed by West Germany in 1990, in the great reunification that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Back then, it was assumed the Easterners, who’d suffered 40 years of communism, would quickly catch up to the Westerners in living standards, but it didn’t happen. To this day, wages in the Eastern states are significantly lower than in the Western ones for the exact same work—sometimes even for the same companies. “To put it bluntly, one could say that East Germany is the Bangladesh of Germany.”…

PARAGUAY Editorial La Nación Paraguay is awash in cheap foreign knockoffs, said La Nación in an editorial, and legitimate vendors just can’t compete. We’ve always had a thriving black market, especially in Ciudad del Este, a notorious smuggling center on the triple border of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. But the situation now is “desperate.” The stalls are crammed with brands like Gap and Tommy Hilfiger, but it’s all fake, from the shoes to the iPhones. Even the gas at the pump might be smuggled, as the oil industry estimated that 100 million liters of gas entered the country illegally this year. Blame rampant “corruption.” Everyone knows exactly “where illegal products enter” the country, but you won’t see police raiding the warehouses of Ciudad del Este. Instead, customs “controls are a…

If President Biden and the Democratic National Committee “have their way, a political calendar half a century old will be a thing of the past,” said Jeff Greenfield in Politico. Iowa and New Hampshire will lose their coveted status as the first two contests in the Democratic presidential nominating cycle, after DNC officials last week backed Biden’s proposal to start with South Carolina—the state whose sizeable Black population rescued his candidacy in 2020. Biden’s plan calls for Nevada and New Hampshire to come next, on the same day—diluting the Granite State’s influence—and then on to big swing states Georgia and Michigan. The rationale for this big reshuffling is simple: Despite the long tradition of candidates campaigning at Iowa state fairs and New Hampshire diners, “a party this diverse cannot…

We were promised “the political scandal of the decade,” said Blake Montgomery in Gizmodo. But there were no “bombshells” in the document dump Twitter CEO Elon Musk heavily hyped last week as proof of “a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment.” The 40-tweet thread released by former Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi includes internal company documents about the New York Post’s October 2020 story on a laptop Hunter Biden left at a Delaware repair shop. It contained videos of Joe Biden’s son “naked, smoking crack, cavorting with prostitutes,” along with an email about a potential introduction between his father—then the vice president—and a Ukrainian oil executive. At the time, the FBI was warning Twitter about Russian election interference, and the Post refused to let other newspapers examine the laptop.…

Scientists have developed an unlikely new use for facial-recognition technology, says the Associated Press: saving seals. Researchers at Colgate University in New York took more than 1,700 images of about 400 individual seals in Maine’s Casco Bay. With this database, dubbed SealNet, they were able to use facial-recognition software to identify the individuals with almost 100 percent accuracy. That will help them monitor and track the mammals in the ocean. While harbor seal numbers have rebounded since the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act 50 years ago, other species—such as the Mediterranean monk seal and the Hawaiian monk seal—are critically endangered. If the database can be broadened to include those species, scientists might be able to save them from extinction. “Understanding their dispersal, understanding their patterns really helps…

We Are the Light by Matthew Quick (Avid Reader, $28) “Timely. Relevant. Ripped from the headlines,” said Karin Tanabe in The Washington Post. The latest novel from the author of The Silver Linings Playbook is all of that, because it touches down on a town devastated by a mass shooting inside the local movie theater. As the main character, whose wife was killed, writes unanswered letters to his Jungian psychoanalyst, a portrait of the town emerges. As in real life, grief here doesn’t obliterate humor, so “don’t feel guilty if your tears are mixed with laughter.” White Horse by Erika T. Wurth (Flatiron, $28) Kari James, the heroine of this electric novel, is “terrifically alive,” said Laura van den Berg in The New York Times. We meet her in…

“December Back 2 June” – Alicia Keys “On her first-ever Christmas album, Alicia Keys goes into ’70s Soul Train mode on the record’s lead single,” said Rachel Brodsky in Stereogum. The catchy, Motown-tinged track “has jingles, scooby-doo-bops, and a feel-good rhythm” that will make you wish you’d been invited to the festive Harlem house party in the song’s music video. “Wintering” – The 1975 The best new Christmas song of the year was tucked into an album the 1975 released in October, said Maura Johnston in NYMag.com. Anchored by the recurring vow, “I’ll be home on the 23rd,” this peppy tune from the Britpop heirs offers “a brisk whirl through overheard family conversations,” capturing both how exhausting and how gratifying holiday-season reunions can be. “Nights in December” – Tkay…

The resurgence of the espresso martini is giving coffee liqueur “a moment in the spotlight,” said Tyler Zielinski in Punch. Along with Kahlúa, the deserving longtime staple, and Mr. Black, the fastest-growing coffee liqueur, here are the other main players to know. Tempus Fugit Crême de Moka ($37). From a brand known for top-shelf liqueurs, this silky option may be “the quintessential coffee liqueur.” It offers notes of cacao and vanilla bean, plus “a roasted earthiness.” St. George NOLA Coffee Liqueur ($35). New Orleans coffee inspires this unique take. Chicory root is roasted with Ethiopian coffee, producing “notes of date and plum.” Galliano Espresso ($30). The sharper flavor of this Italian classic is derived from robusta coffee beans. It adds body to an espresso martini and functions almost like…

The shipping-container business brought in $58.9 billion in profits in the third quarter of 2022, up 22.4 percent from last year and 158 percent higher than the combined profits of Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. The Hustle The cost of sending a standard 40-foot container from China to the U.S. West Coast is $1,935—down more than 90 percent from its September 2021 peak of $20,586. The Washington Post Global renewable-power capacity is now expected to grow by 2,400 gigawatts between 2022 and 2027, an amount equal to the entire power-generating capacity of China, according to a report from the IEA. The agency expects green energy to overtake coal to become the largest global source of electricity by early 2025. CNN.com More than 350 companies have gone public in the U.S.…

Covid boosts life insurance demand Demand for life insurance has soared since 2020, said Kate Dore in CNBC.com, and insurers are shelling out more than they have in decades. “Payouts to beneficiaries rose by nearly 11 percent in 2021, jumping to over $100 billion.” That was after the largest year-over-year jump in payments since the 1918 influenza epidemic, according to insurers. The demand for protection keeps growing three years into the pandemic, even as underwriters are re-evaluating their terms. There’s “ongoing debate” on the “ways Covid may be affecting mortality,” particularly for those with pre-existing conditions or who may be suffering from symptoms of “long Covid.” Covid inquiries have begun appearing on life insurance applications, including “questions about your history of testing positive.” Pepsi’s hardcore training program Only McKinsey…

Jonathan Levin Bloomberg A housing inventory spike this spring looks “unavoidable,” said Jonathan Levin—removing the one thing holding up prices. Right now, the housing market is “in an uneasy state of equilibrium.” The rise in mortgage rates has significantly curtailed demand, “but home prices haven’t declined much in part because supply remains correspondingly low.” We’re quickly getting close, though, to the beginning of the spring buying rush, when For Sale signs start popping up everywhere. For the past two years, the supply coming online in the spring has been unusually muted, perhaps because many potential sellers thought moving was too expensive. But many of those delayed sellers “won’t have the luxury of waiting for the next open house season.” Housing bulls often argue that remote work during the pandemic ushered…

What happened Conservative Supreme Court justices voiced unexpectedly strong skepticism of a GOP-backed legal theory that could radically upend centuries of election law precedent this week. During contentious oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, North Carolina Republican legislators urged the court to restore a heavily gerrymandered election map that the state’s own top court struck down last year. They invoked the Independent State Legislature doctrine, which holds that the Constitution gives state legislatures near-absolute authority to regulate elections. Its endorsement by the court could invalidate hundreds of election laws. Brett Kavanaugh, despite past support for the idea, criticized the legislators for going farther than Chief Justice Rehnquist went in 2000 when he supported checks on the power of state courts in Bush v. Gore. Amy Coney Barrett seemed similarly…

The band Guns N’ Roses is suing TexasGunsandRoses.com, a Houston-based retailer that sells both firearms and floral arrangements. The band alleges the gun store is trying to fool consumers into “believing that it was connected or associated with, or licensed by, GNR.” Despite the band’s name, it argues it is “particularly damaging” to be associated with actual firearms. Police in Alabama arrested, handcuffed, and jailed an 82-year-old grandmother over an unpaid trash-collection bill of $77.80. Martha Menefield says officers told her not to cry as they put her in handcuffs. “I’m just happy my grandkids weren’t here to see that,” she said. Police chief Mike Reynolds said that while officers can use “discretionary judgment on certain matters,” enforcement of arrest warrants “is not one of them.” In other news GOP…

Kate Hudson was raised by Hollywood royalty, said Scarlett Russell in The Times (U.K.). Her mother is Goldie Hawn, and her stepfather is Kurt Russell. Kurt, whom Hudson calls “Pa,” and Goldie have been together since 1983. “He’s an amazing family man who took us on as his own kids, which was very important for Oliver and me,” says Hudson, referring to her brother, whose biological dad is also musician Bill Hudson. “My parents are really focused on how they raised us,” says Hudson, 43. “Family was their priority.” She and her brothers grew up in Los Angeles and Colorado, hanging out with actors such as Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. But “at the time we didn’t know what a glamorous upbringing was,” she says. She became a star…

ABC temporarily removed GMA3 anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes from the air this week after The Daily Mail (U.K.) reported that the married anchors have carried out an affair since March. Robach and Holmes tacitly acknowledged their relationship after the Mail story by arriving together at the studio, and then giddily joking on the air about having a “great week.” The network said that although Robach, 49, and Holmes, 45, didn’t break company rules, they’d become a “distraction” both in the studio and to viewers, so their assignments were being reviewed. The anchors say their relationship started after they each ended a 12-year marriage. Robach reportedly separated from her husband this summer, but Holmes’ wife, Marilee Fiebig, was reportedly “devastated” by news of the affair. Before Holmes’ affair…

Will Bunch The Philadelphia Inquirer Democrats had “a golden opportunity” last week to prove they really care about working-class men and women, said Will Bunch. Instead, President Biden and his congressional allies have imposed a labor contract on 115,000 rail workers that denies them any paid sick leave. Biden once promised to be “the most pre-union president” in history, but didn’t use his leverage in negotiations to demand that rail freight companies provide the seven paid sick days a year the workers wanted. These rail companies, which have annual revenues of $27 billion, oppose any paid sick time because they’ve adopted “precision-scheduled railroading”—computerized worker assignments that have enabled them to cut payrolls by 30 percent. These assignments assume workers can’t call in sick. So if rail workers get Covid or…

A police officer in Long Island, N.Y., has helped deliver five babies in five years. “It’s one of those crazy coincidences,” said Sgt. Jon-Erik Negron of the Suffolk County Police Department, who last month helped deliver number five in a woman’s living room. “The babies are just following [me].” Negron, dubbed the Baby Whisperer by his colleagues, learned how to assist at a childbirth from a video at the police academy. He said he’s grateful he “paid attention in that class.” A U.K.-based startup is developing a video game system designed to “unleash your dog’s cognitive potential.” Joipaw’s soon-to-be-released gaming console will offer “interactive puzzle games” including a whack-a-mole challenge, which dogs play by touching a saliva-resistant touchscreen with their snouts. Company co-founder Dersim Avdar said the games will stimulate…

AUSTRALIA Tim Soutphommasane The Age Australians are only too happy to mock British racism, said Tim Soutphommasane, but we don’t seem to notice the homegrown variety. Many Australians professed to be shocked at the recent story out of the U.K. from Ngozi Fulani, a Black woman, who said a royal aide at a Palace shindig wouldn’t accept that she was British but kept pestering her to say where she was “really from.” Yet look at what happened next: The Palace condemned the racist remark and the offending aide resigned with an apology. I doubt we’d have seen such a decisive response if that interrogation had happened at an Australian do. Given how many times I and every other Australian of color I know have fielded such questions, it’s highly likely…

“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.” Billy Connolly, quoted in The Scotsman “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” Physicist Linus Pauling, quoted in Chegg.com “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir, quoted in The Boston Globe “Totalitarian regimes thrive precisely on the ability to turn everyone, even their victims, into accomplices.” Historian Flora Cassen, quoted in Slate “Was there ever an adventure that was not bought at the price of fear and agony? Are not the bravest also the terrified?” Journalist Elsie Robinson, quoted in the Los Angeles Review of Books “Where all think alike, no one…

U.S. hurdles for a chip powerhouse The costs are adding up at a $12 billion chip fabrication plant in Arizona, said Yang Jie in The Wall Street Journal. President Biden visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s north Phoenix plant construction site this week for a symbolic “tool-in ceremony.” TSMC, which makes Apple’s microprocessors and many other advanced chips, is a central player in the tech industry. The visit “by a president to a foreign company’s factory reflects the U.S. reliance on TSMC to give American chip manufacturing a lift.” But the Taiwanese giant is facing unexpected expenses. Most of the equipment is being shipped from Taiwan, and TSMC is using bonuses to lure Taiwanese engineers to America because of struggles hiring domestically. Building the same fab in Taiwan, the company…

Good news for potato lovers: The humble spud may be an ideal ingredient for those trying to lose a few pounds. Tubers have sometimes been considered too starchy to be a diet food. But a small new study shows that they can help people lose weight without spiking glucose levels. Researchers recruited 36 people, ages 18 to 60, all either overweight, obese, or resistant to insulin. The participants were put on diets high in veggies and with some meat and fish, but with 40 percent of the typical American meat consumption swapped out for either beans or skin-on potatoes. Both groups lost weight over the eight weeks of the study, and both showed reduced insulin resistance. But the potato-eaters felt full more quickly and often didn’t finish their meals.…

A Book of Days by Patti Smith (Random House, $29) Patti Smith’s compact new book “rests in your hand like a box of high-end chocolates—pleasingly weighty, promising elegance and class alongside a touch of the bittersweet,” said Elisabeth Egan in The New York Times. It also delivers on that promise, sharing a photograph and a thought for each day of the year that end up feeling like 366 glimpses into the world of the poet, rock legend, and award-winning memoirist. “Think of it as a tear-off daily calendar, minus the stress of keeping up with page disposal.” Though there’s a photo on nearly every page, A Book of Days “works as a piece of literature,” said Christian House in the Financial Times. Sometimes celebrating an ongoing friendship, sometimes eulogizing…

Andrew Morton lied for years about the origin of the royal biography that made his career, said Elena Nicolaou in Today.com. When Diana: Her True Story rattled the House of Windsor in 1992, Morton insisted that his subject, the Princess of Wales, hadn’t participated. But in 1997, following Diana’s death, Morton finally admitted that she had been his main source, covertly sending him tapes in which she revealed her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. At the time, Morton was as surprised as anyone that Charles and Diana’s marriage was troubled. “I believed in the fairy story,” he says. Learning that the Windsors were suppressing the truth made Morton’s life briefly suspenseful. “Doing the biography was a royal version of All the President’s Men,” he says. “You saw danger…

The year’s wildest sci-fi movies… Something in the Dirt Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead make lo-fi sci-fi magic in their latest film. They co-star as neighbors who buddy up to try to document apparent paranormal happenings in their run-down Hollywood Hills apartment complex. $7 on demand Everything Everywhere All at Once Michelle Yeoh gives, well, everything in the word-of-mouth hit of the year. She plays a laundromat owner who discovers during an IRS audit that the survival of the multiverse depends on her—and the roles she plays in each alternate reality. Showtime Crimes of the Future David Cronenberg’s latest is not for the squeamish. Viggo Mortensen stars opposite Léo Seydoux as a performance artist whose act entails having his partner surgically remove his unnecessary organs. Yet it’s his inquiry…

Soko Amali Open Ring Soko works with Kenyan artisans and uses ethically sourced metals to produce its jewelry, including this ring plated with 24-karat gold. $98, shopsoko.com Source: Who What Wear Upcycled Record Coasters Cut from vinyl records, these 4-inch coasters, hand-produced in Philadelphia, “will make any guy excited to entertain friends.” $18, uncommongoods.com Source: Men’s Health Godiva Truffle Flight This limited-edition six-pack of decadent chocolates features six seasonal flavors, including cranberry, tiramisu, and salted caramel. $20, godiva.com Source: NBCNews.com Zipit Monster Pencil Case This machine-washable and “downright awesome” backpack accessory will brighten anyone’s day. $9, just-zipit.com Source: Forbes Maileg Mother Deer This small reindeer made of soft cotton and linen is “perfect for someone who needs a little cuddle.” $22, mailegusa.com Source: Variety Apple AirTag “For that special…

Florida said last week it will pull $2 billion in state money managed by BlackRock, said Ross Kerber in Reuters, over opposition to the firm’s environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) policies. Republican leaders have criticized the giant investment firm for putting sustainability goals above returns, while BlackRock said it is “disturbed by the emerging trend of political initiatives that sacrifice access to high-quality investments.” BlackRock is also taking heat from the opposite direction. This week, a U.K. investor called on BlackRock to replace chief executive Larry Fink for “not going far enough” on ESG goals. Litigation: Hertz to pay drivers accused of theft Hertz will pay $168 million to settle claims from customers who were falsely accused of stealing rental vehicles, said Livia Albeck-Ripka in The New York Times. A…

Colleges are facing a dire shortage of “18-year-olds they can coax onto campus,” said Kevin Carey in Vox. From 1985 to 2007, the number of undergraduates nationwide increased from 10.6 million to 15.6 million, thanks to a surge from Baby Boomers’ kids “and the collapse of well-paying blue-collar jobs.” Colleges marketed themselves as “the only places legally allowed to sell credentials that unlocked the gateway to a stable, prosperous life.” That worked as a selling point for more than two decades—but no longer. After peaking in 2010 with 18.1 million undergraduates, college enrollment is in a decline that might be irreversible. “A rolling demographic aftershock of the Great Recession” has been a plunging birth rate that, in time, could produce “an enrollment cliff.” Meanwhile, teens are getting “even harder…

Last year, 650,000 people in the world died of AIDS, a treatable but still incurable disease. For a quarter century, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (iavi.org) has supported the development of vaccines and treatments. That includes work on an mRNA-based vaccine, similar in principle to Moderna’s Covid shot, as well as a viral vector–based vaccine and three clinical programs to elicit strong antibody responses to HIV. The nonprofit has backed the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research, an India- and Africa-led research effort, and has established the Neutralizing Antibody Center, a source of innovation in broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies. Additionally, more than 874,000 people in Africa have received treatment and care through IAVI’s clinical network. Each charity we feature has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator,…

Shira Ovide The Washington Post Elon Musk wasn’t wrong to shame Apple for its App Store fees, said Shira Ovide. Last week, the new owner of Twitter called out Apple for its “secret 30 percent tax on everything you buy through their App Store.” He’s aligning himself with a growing list of companies that are rebelling against the fees. The “Apple tax” traces back to “the first principle of apps,” which is that “if you’re buying something in an app that exists in the real world,” like a toy from Walmart or a ride from Uber, “Apple and Google have nothing to do with it.” But “digital stuff” is subject to a 30 percent cut. The only way to get around that is to not take any payments in the…

Pitcher Gaylord Perry was one of the most audacious rule-breakers in American sports history. His critics—including batters baffled by his unnaturally plunging spitball—called him a cheater. And Major League Baseball tightened rules against the spitball (a catchall term for enhancing a pitch’s spin with a foreign substance) in the middle of his career, in 1973. But the imposing 6-foot-4 pitcher relished his reputation for trickery. He even published a 1974 memoir, Me and the Spitter, describing how he slicked the ball with saliva, Vaseline, fish-line oil, and other lubricants. “I tried everything on the old apple,” Perry wrote, “but salt and pepper and chocolate sauce.” Perry was born to peanut farmer parents in Williamston, N.C., said The Washington Post. There he “worked in the fields” after school with his…

Shaquille O’Neal knows who’s at fault for his failed marriage, said David Walters in People. “I was a dickhead,” says the NBA legend, 50. He and his wife of nine years, Shaunie Henderson, divorced in 2011 amid reports of his serial infidelity. “You don’t know how good you got something till it’s gone,” O’Neal says. “I was living the good life.” His marriage and his five children were a refuge during the 19 seasons that the 7-foot-1, 285-pound O’Neal dominated the league with his size and an aggression that bordered on anger. Early in his career, if he had a bad game, “I’d go crazy,” O’Neal says. “I’d tear the house up. I was the Hulk.” Having kids softened him. Whether he scored 40 points or 2, he says,…

Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times In a modern society, “there can be no excuse for an outbreak of measles,” said Michael Hiltzik. And yet, despite a vaccine that’s over 93 percent effective, the U.S. is facing a measles surge. Columbus, Ohio, now has a measles outbreak of at least 44 cases—every one of them among unvaccinated kids. A larger outbreak of this highly infectious, sometimes fatal disease may be coming, both in Columbus and across the nation, because of “the rising influence of the anti-vaccination movement.” The number of anti-vaxxers exploded during the Covid pandemic, when President Trump and his “right-wing echo chamber” made defiance of public health measures a badge of partisan identity. As a direct result of this anti-science sentiment, the reddest counties had Covid death rates more…

IRELAND Terry Prone Irish Examiner The Christmas season is upon us, and that means Irish cops are once again battling the Dublin gangs that plunder our Christmas trees, said Terry Prone. It’s an odd choice of contraband: Stealing trees from tree farms requires a big truck and the ability to wield a chainsaw under cover of darkness without accidentally “amputating one of your own limbs,” plus the patience to set up your own little sales stand festooned with colored lights. The whole enterprise “seems to call for a level of fitness and commitment one doesn’t associate with crime gangs”—who presumably are all about easy money, not hard work. Yet it turns out that black-market trees fetch “a nice profit right before Christmas.” Dublin has some of the world’s priciest holiday…

Artificial intelligence can predict a person’s 10-year risk of death from heart attack or stroke from a single chest X-ray, a new study suggests. Researchers fed nearly 150,000 scans into the program to train it to identify patterns linked with risk of a cardiovascular event. When they then tested the algorithm on around 11,000 people, reports CNN.com, they found “significant association” between the predicted risk and the actual incidence of heart attack or stroke. Currently, cardiovascular disease risk is measured using a score that weighs factors including age, blood pressure, and smoking history. The AI predictions were just as accurate as that calculator, and in some cases identified risk when a traditional X-ray interpretation would not. “We’ve long recognized that X-rays capture information beyond traditional diagnostic findings,” says lead…

Nigerian author Uwem Akpan is a professor at the University of Florida, a former Jesuit priest, and author of the story collection Say You’re One of Them, a 2008 best-seller. His debut novel, New York, My Village, is now out in paperback. The Man Died by Wole Soyinka (1971). When I was 15, Mama forced this on me in Ikot Akpan Eda, Nigeria. She thought I was “all over the place” and needed to sit still. I toiled daily without understanding. At 24, I returned to this prison memoir and discovered a masterpiece on human rights and the effects of tribalism. I met Soyinka in 2009 and couldn’t meet his eyes because of tears of gratitude. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952). Still 15, I…

This week’s question: Hundreds of fishermen and women had to be rescued from Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake after the chunk of ice where they stood broke off and went adrift. Come up with the title of a disaster movie melodrama about this harrowing accidental voyage. Last week’s contest: A 68-year-old man who uses a walker allegedly robbed a bank in Fresno, Calif., and was caught two blocks away. Come up with the title of a crime movie about this slow-moving bandit. THE WINNER: “Pokey Is the Bandit” Paul Anderson, Franklin, Tenn. SECOND PLACE: “Take the Money and Hobble” Penn Jillette, Las Vegas THIRD PLACE: “The Old Man and the C-notes” Phyllis Klein, Forest Hills, N.Y. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions…