Fungible Convictions

I managed to take a number of pictures at the Boston Marathon on Monday, of which my favorite by far is this one. Yes, that’s a marathoner; and, yes, that a Miller Lite.

Here’s the rest of the Boston Marathon photoset.

A hearty congratulations to Courtney and the rest of the Tufts Presidential Challenge team.

Tomorrow folks will be hanging out with Jonathan Foer in Allston. I’ll just link to the info since it seems they don’t want a terribly large crowd. Thanks to the Weekly Dig for hosting.

First, go Tufts Boston Marathon team! Today is the greatest day of the year in Boston—half the city has the day off work for Patriots Day, the Red Sox play an 11am game (4-4, end of the sixth, the offense is starting to come around), and someone you know is running the Boston Marathon.

I’m about to head down to Copley to the finish line but wanted to give a quick plug to the top-flight April issue of the Believer. The evaluation of Susan Sontag obituaries—many of them snide, prejudiced, and generally unusually critical—offered a fantastic look into how America deals with its female intellectuals (the short version: not all our smart women are as self-effacing as, say, guy’s gal Doris Kearns Goodwin, and even she didn’t get cut the slack David McCullogh did after their footnoting blow-ups).

The Believer also published a partial transcript of Adam Curtis’ The Power of Nightmares, a documentary that traces the power of ideas—and the persons they’re connected through. The transcript comes from the first episode, which traces the song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” straight on through to 9/11—and it actually makes a bit of sense, scarily enough.

And as always, kudos to the Believer for producing the most distinctive and lovely design in literary journalism.