Just when I think the dominant news of the day is too big to be pushed aside, it is eclipsed by other news. I was working through an early draft of the newsletter last Friday morning (June 24, 2002) … Read more
Great story ideas are everywhere, and Corinne Purtill spotted a gem on a family trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, where she learned the story of a celebrity with a checkered past. Purtill had just joined … Read more
Conclusion based on anecdotal evidence: Anyone who writes a regular column for a newspaper or magazine works harder than you know. Corollary: Community newspaper columnists, who usually can’t tap events outside their small community, work even harder. Ashley Lodato … Read more
In the 100-plus days since Vladimir Putin ordered his Russian army into Ukraine, I have done something I rarely do on social media: Forwarded shares, many days a week, of art from and about Ukraine. I’ve wondered, of course, … Read more
Sometimes the words just don’t work. I don’t mean they don’t come together easily or work well or string together in pretty rhythms. Those are annoyances we seldom get to indulge in deadline journalism. I mean they simply don’t … Read more
By March 2020, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the incurable illness also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, had already ravaged Ron Deprez’s once-strong body with particular cruelty. He needed help with one last thing: to die. It fell to his … Read more
After 19 students and two teachers were gunned down in a classroom in Uvalde, Texas, the chorus rose: “Enough!” It came with a sad refrain: “It will happen again.” And it did. As many as 15 mass … Read more
For all my life, I’ve been a baseball agnostic. The thing I like most about baseball is that, by and large, it is played outside in the summertime, generally in the cool of the evening. Johnny … Read more
How much difference does three days make? Too much, at least when it comes to our gnat-like attention span. Three days is the time it takes for the public to shift from outrage to resignation in response to a … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: All time codes in this post correspond to the YouTube version of “The Queen of Basketball.” It’s also available, with an introduction by filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, on The New York Times site. Read more
