{"id":3939,"date":"2009-05-15T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3939"},"modified":"2009-05-14T21:49:41","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T01:49:41","slug":"unrequired-reading-may-15-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-15-2009","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: May 15, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, it’s on.<\/p>\n

Just click “more”!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

American Idol’s in decline<\/a>, evidently, but that’s a relative term. “In the 2003-4 season, the first in which ‘Idol’ was the top-rated prime-time series, its lead over the second place show was about 7 percent. That margin has grown every year since and this year is 66 percent.” So, uh, not that bad.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I don’t see why the CIA hasn’t just waterboarded Kryptos<\/a> to find out the code.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Maybe you’re bored, now that I’ve posted 3 or 4 of these, but here’s another rumination on death and the cosmos by Roger Ebert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’m sure glad my Navy pal isn’t in a carrier strike group<\/a> nowadays.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Carrie’s back<\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Hey! Where the white people at<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Would life without newspapers<\/a> also include life without people complaining about life without newspapers? Because I’d be so down with that.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

This article on how Nadal came to own Federer<\/a> covers one of my favorite aspects of sports: the way greatness begets great competition, which in turns drives greatness to become even greater, or crash and burn. And all against the backdrop of age & mortality!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Tapeheads<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, it’s on. Just click “more”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,19],"tags":[562,698,285,697],"class_list":["post-3939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-urban-issues","tag-carrie-fisher","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-ebert","tag-roger-federer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-11x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3837,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/no-bailout","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":0},"title":"No bailout","author":"Gil","date":"April 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was in Vegas this week, I entertained the thought of giving up this blog, bailing on writing (but not my day job as an editor), and trying to find another pursuit\/outlet. Then two things happened. First, one of my best friends wrote out of the blue to tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Roger Ebert\"","block_context":{"text":"Roger Ebert","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/roger-ebert"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3425,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-13-2009","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 13, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's an extra-spooky, hockey-mask-wearing Friday the 13th edition of Unrequired Reading! Boo! The A.V. Club offers back-to-back Random Roles interviews with two VM faves: Illeana Douglas and Bruce Campbell! * * * Roger Ebert contemplates the long-term view, as in that Flaming Lips lyric, \"Do you realize that everyone you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4124,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-june-26-2009","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: June 26, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"June 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No doubt about it: these links suck. Just click \"more\"! I'm sorry, Kathryn Bigelow. You made Strange Days. Hence, you suck. * * * I'm sorry, Huckabees. You still suck, especially as a followup to Three Kings. * * * Painter of light? You suck as a businessman and as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4415,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-28-2009","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 28, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"August 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a busy week, so cut my links some slack, okay? And just click \"more\"! Long Live the King. * * * Biography Bookshop or thousand-dollar purse: Which Bleecker Street do you want? * * * For those of you scoring at home. * * * I know you've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5015,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-19-2010","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 19, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"February 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Llllllllllllllet's get ready for Unrequired Reading! I inadvertently copied this post, because my research assistants didn't label it properly. It's your fault for expecting so much of me. * * * Of course, the Nazi baseball team was from Boston. * * * Jughead is a punk rocker! * *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3537,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/apart-the-hole","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":5},"title":"Apart, the Hole","author":"Gil","date":"March 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I saw Synecdoche, New York on Friday afternoon and I've spent this weekend trying to parse what I saw, heard and felt. I've even been struggling with the metaphor of how it's affected me; I don't want to ape the ongoingly-dying lead character by saying it's infected me like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3940,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions\/3940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}