Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1. The Literary Cubs
By Alex Williams | The New York Times | Nov. 30
“Fueled by B.Y.O.B. bourbon, impressive degrees and the angst that comes with being young and unmoored, members spend their hours filling the air with talk of Edmund Wilson and poststructuralism.”
2. Grudge Lust
By Elizabeth Greenwood | The New Inquiry | Nov. 23
“Sometimes, especially in arduous and boring times, like a long flight or a dull class, I will pick someone out of a crowd to be my nemesis. My nemeses need not have harmed me, per se, but she or he will be selected for some ghastly, unforgivable trait.”
3. 10 political lessons from Herman Cain’s campaign
Naked Politics :: The Miami Herald | Dec. 3
“Herman Cain’s campaign is gone, but the political takeaways live on”
4. YouTube Gets Its Biggest Makeover Ever, Becomes More Google-Like
By Chris Taylor | Mashable Tech | Dec. 1
“So what’s the change all about? One word: channels. The world’s most popular online video service now sees itself as a descendent of cable TV, with millions of channels rather than hundreds — and it’s doing its darndest to encourage you to use it that way.”
5. Dear Important Novelists: Be Less Like Moses and More Like Howard Cosell
By Dwight Garner | The New York Times Magazine | Sept. 16
“It’s worth suggesting, though, that something more meaningful may be going on here; these long spans between books may indicate a desalinating tidal change in the place novelists occupy in our culture.”
6. Herman Cain Exits
By Amy Davidson | Close Read :: The New Yorker | Dec. 3
“Really, we promise — we’ll manage. Cain suspending his campaign means that we will no longer have to suspend our disbelief about the seriousness of his candidacy, or about what’s become of our political culture.”
7. Understanding the Battle Over Texas Redistricting
By Justin Dehn and Thanh Tan | The Texas Tribune | Dec. 2
“Months after the Legislature established its maps, it’s still not clear who Texans will be voting for in next year’s congressional and state House and Senate races. The Trib’s Thanh Tan and Ross Ramsey explain why.”
8. How Herman Cain benefits from dropping out: Money and political power
By Brad Knickerbocker | The Christian Science Monitor | Dec. 3
“Herman Cain may no longer be a presidential candidate, but he doesn’t need to sulk. His promise to endorse one of the other candidates means political power, and his books and other endeavors will bring him more money.”
9. Chavez lauds new Latin American alliance
Al Jazeera | Dec. 3
“Venezuelan president, battling cancer, appears energetic at founding of 33-member bloc meant to counter United States.”
10. Susan Wallace
Civil War Women Blog | Nov. 28
“Susan Arnold Elston Wallace was an American author and poet and wife of Civil War soldier and author Lew Wallace.”
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TUNES
My soundtrack for today included:
1. OH SWEET NUTHIN’ The Velvet Underground
2. THE TRUTH Handsome Boy Modeling School
3. I’LL TAKE YOU THERE The Staple Singers
4. WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE Domaje
5. WHIPPING POST The Allman Brothers Band
6. THIS NIGHT Black Lab
7. GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE Elbow
8. I’LL FLY AWAY Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch
9. ME AND JULIO DOWN BY THE SCHOOLYARD Paul Simon
10. ELECTRIC CITY Black Eyed Peas
Stillness of Heart 
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