Stuff to Read (3/3/10)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's the second entry in our ongoing series. The first is here. What I'm doing is linking to interesting articles, reviews, stories, etc., often with a sentence or two of commentary, that I've recently come across. And I'll be doing it on an irregular basis.

Not too much today, as I've been pretty busy, and tired, not to mention preoccupied with the Olympics and with preparing for my upcoming fantasy baseball draft. (I have the #2 overall pick in a deep 12-team league with a bunch of categories. Hello, Hanley. Welcome to the defending champs.)

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Slate: "The Chin Is In," by Troy Patterson -- Slate's TV critic takes look at Jay Leno's first Tonight Show after his return to the 11:35 slot: "What rankles is that, in his unwillingness to curb his uncontrolled greed for camera time, Leno was really, really uncool... Leno is serving something that, aimed to please as many palates as possible, is the same old pablum as before, the only difference being that it now leaves a bitter taste in the mouth." I didn't watch it, and I'm glad I didn't.

Actually, that's it. (I've also been reading through NFL mock drafts, complementing my frequent reading of the Steelers page at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, just to get a sense of what my beloved team might do in the real draft in April. But I'll spare you.)

Although, allow me again to recommend, highly, Jonathan Chait's new blog at The New Republic (in a way, the successor to The Plank, which I miss dearly.) Along with his colleague, Jonathan Cohn, he's been doing some fantastic commentary on health-care reform, though he touches on a wide variety of subjects. I check back frequently so as not to miss anything.