{"id":4735,"date":"2009-12-18T07:06:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T12:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2009-12-18T08:24:51","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T13:24:51","slug":"unrequired-reading-dec-18-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-dec-18-2009","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: Dec. 18, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for me, trying to get the year-end ish of my magazine together, but it’s almost all wrapped up now! Congratulate me! And enjoy this week’s dose of Unrequired Reading. Just click “more”!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What’s John Madden up to nowadays<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Matt Zoller-Seitz explores The New Muppet Mania<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Baseball writer Buster Olney writes a sweet column about his history with the legendary Peter Gammons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Pace<\/em> Woody Allen, I’d like to achieve immortality by not dying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Ebert offers up some holiday gift ideas<\/a>. (But you didn’t get me anything<\/a>! Sob!)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Eliot Spitzer’s reading list<\/a>. No, there’s no joke here. Okay, fine: this<\/a> isn’t on it.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’ll always find new ways of being uncool<\/a>. . .<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

. . . by listening to Julian Lennon records<\/a>, for example!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

If I donated $100 million to a library<\/a>, I probably wouldn’t demand it be named after me. I’d probably make them call it the Oscar Goldman Library or the Maxwell Smart Building.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Why do we blog<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for me, trying to get the year-end ish of my magazine together, but it’s almost all wrapped up now! Congratulate me! And enjoy this week’s dose of Unrequired Reading. Just click “more”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[632,27,33,4,32,19],"tags":[922,920,315,919,923,657,921,285],"class_list":["post-4735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-big-business","category-football","category-literature","category-sports","category-urban-issues","tag-brian-eno","tag-buster-olney","tag-eliot-spitzer","tag-john-madden","tag-julian-lennon","tag-matt-zoller-seitz","tag-peter-gammons","tag-roger-ebert"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1en","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5283,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-14-2010","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: May 14, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"May 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"After a one-week hiatus, it's time for some Unrequired Reading! Who's with me? This piece by A.O. Scott on Generation X's midlife crisis was the most entertaining thing I read last week. * * * I've long believed that Dave Bliss is one of the few people in college sports\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":5578,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-september-10-2010","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: September 10, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"September 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you ready for some linkball? In honor of Rosh Hashanah, let's celebrate RUSH Hashanah! * * * More songs about buildings and food movies about work. * * * WAR! (HUH!) What is it good for? * * * I had no idea there was a free black town\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4467,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sept-18-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Sept. 18, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"September 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Shana Tova! Happy New Year Links! Just click \"more\"! Double down and throw up! * * * INTERNAL DECAPITATION?! And he recovered enough in less than 5 months to throw out the opening pitch at an Angels game? Go, Jon Wilhite! * * * Neil Patrick Harris: OMNIMAN! * *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baseball"","block_context":{"text":"baseball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/baseball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4194,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-17-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 17, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"July 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Summertime, and the linkin' is easy. Just click \"more\"! My Top Companies issue is online! (without the graphics and neat formatting of the print edition, but hey) * * * Roger Ebert on Robert McNamara, sin and confession. * * * Snack attack, motherf****r! * * * Speaking of which:\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":4735,"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":3831,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/go-wes","url_meta":{"origin":4735,"position":5},"title":"Go Wes","author":"Gil","date":"April 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It took me some time to get over my rage at Wes Anderson and learn to enjoy the quirky preciosity of his movies. Now I'm good with him. I'm still trying to suss out what I expect from movies, novels and, well, art in general, so I'm not going to\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\/4735","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=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4741,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions\/4741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}