Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2573

September 6, 2010

About My Job: The Opinion Journalist

by Conor Friedersdorf

This profession encompasses a significant part of my writerly output. The insight I want to offer is that among the people who do this on a daily basis, there is a lot of implicit disagreement about what our purpose is or should be. I'll just list some of the different approaches I perceive.

The purpose of opinion journalism is...

1) ...to make money.

2) ...to attract an audience.

3) ...to influence people.

4) ... to generate ideas.

5) ...to advance conversations.

6) ...to help ...

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Published on September 06, 2010 16:45

The Clever Method Of Control, Ctd









by Chris Bodenner

For a fascinating story of someone who refused to be controlled, check out This American Life's profile of Michael Larson, the man who cracked the code of Press Your Luck by memorizing its patterns for weeks on end.

(The video is ten minutes long, but I couldn't keep my eyes off. If you're not familiar with the game, all he had to do was slip up once, hit a "whammy" tile, and lose all of his earnings - ultimately more than $100K. And Larson was unemployed with little m...

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Published on September 06, 2010 16:27

Shaken or Stirred?

by Conor Friedersdorf

Forget about what James Bond would do -- here's what you need to know:

Cocktail shaking is a violent activity.  If you shake for around 12-15 seconds (though shaking longer won't hurt), and if  you aren't too lethargic, neither the type of ice you use nor your shaking style will appreciably affect the temperature or dilution of your drink. Shaking completely chills, dilutes and aerates a drink in around 15 seconds, after which the drink stops changing radically and...

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Published on September 06, 2010 16:02

The Sexism Of Ladies Night, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

In this post, you end by asking a question that seems like it obviously would never happen: "What if a club owner wanted to attract more white patrons by offering them a special discount."

However, something like this happens all the time at night clubs and bars, though it is typically less overt.  Many establishments enforce policies against certain racial groups through use of a selective dress code. I once tended bar at an upscale nightclub in the South...

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Published on September 06, 2010 15:41

Face Of The Day


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Picture taken on September 6, 2010 in Lyon, eastern France, shows a new
gargoyle put on the the cathedral, which looks like Benzizine Ahmed
(R), the Muslim foreman who led the restoration of the tower and worked
on the cathedral for 30 years. The gargoyle, in honour of Ahmed, stands
over a sign saying 'Allah Akbar' (God is Greatest) in both Arabic and
French language. By Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images.





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Cathedral - France - Lyon - Muslim - Takbir

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Published on September 06, 2010 15:29

The Sexism Of Ladies Night, Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I'd like to respond to your post on "Ladies Nights," specifically your comment "[w:]hat if a club owner wanted to attract more white patrons by offering them a special discount?"

The situation is inherently different.  The goal of ladies nights is not really to attract more female customers, but to attract more male customers (who will pay full price) looking to go to bars with more female customers (for whom they will buy full-priced drinks).  While we would...

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Published on September 06, 2010 15:14

Prep Schools, Cont'd

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

I thought about responding to this subject before, but once I read the prep school bit, I absolutely had to. I grew up in Exeter, NH. My mother taught at the Academy. It was certainly expected that I would go -- and I did for two years, until my family moved (and we couldn't afford the boarding fees). Then I went to Harvard. While my mother didn't attend an Ivy, (or one of the 7 sisters) starting with her father, my family has attended an Ivy (usually...

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Published on September 06, 2010 14:41

The Annals of Long Form Journalism

by Conor Friedersdorf

Into Thin Air starts as follows:

Straddling the top of the world, one foot in Tibet and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently at the vast sweep of earth below. I understood on some dim, detached level that it was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, standing on the summit...

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Published on September 06, 2010 14:06

About My Job: The Epidemiologist

by Conor Friedersdorf

The reader writes:

As an epidemiology doctoral student, I'm constantly amazed by the ways in which people misunderstand, misconstrue, and overestimate the available evidence on health-related topics. Few things touch as many aspects of our lives as intimately as health, and yet we consistently see high percentages of individuals making use of therapies with little or no value, sometimes at great expense to both their health and their pocketbooks. We have around 300 years...

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Published on September 06, 2010 13:45

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