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Best Of 2010

The Runaway General

“Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.”

Michael Hastings Rolling Stone Jun 2010 Permalink

The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High

A story of gambling addiction, in seven parts.

Jay Caspian Kang The Morning News Oct 2010 Permalink

Sex

Sweatpants in Paradise

The immersive mise en scène of a 2010 Hollister flagship store, redolent of California beach towns that don’t exist, “lazy, hygienic sexuality,” and weed.

Molly Young The Believer Sep 2010 10min Permalink

Best Article

The Quaid Conspiracy

Randy Quaid and his wife Evi have fled to Canada and are living in their car. They are seeking asylum from the menace of the “Hollywood Star Whackers.”

Nancy Jo Sales Vanity Fair Jan 2011 25min Permalink

Best Article Arts Movies & TV

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

A profile of the film critic.

Chris Jones Esquire Mar 2010 30min Permalink

Sports

The Legend of Black Superman

In the 1980s, Billy Ray Bates, once dubbed “the Legend,” drank himself out of the NBA and ended up playing in the Philippines. For a few wild years, his legend grew—both on the court and in the bars.

Rafe Bartholomew Deadspin Jun 2010 15min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Ballad of Colton Harris-Moore

The story of the “Barefoot Bandit,” a teenage fugitive on the run.

Bob Friel Outside Dec 2009 30min Permalink

Best Article

Smash

The comeback of Marty Reisman, the most flamboyant figure in the history of table tennis, and the self-proclaimed greatest hardbat player ever.

Howard Jacobson Table Tennis News Jan 1999 25min Permalink

Best Article Crime

TV’s Crowning Moment of Awesome

How a card-counting former meteorologist from Las Vegas made the first perfect Showcase bid in the 38-year history of The Price Is Right.

Chris Jones Esquire Jul 2010 20min Permalink

Business

Betting on the Blind Side

Sitting alone in his San Jose office, Michael Burry saw the bubble in the subprime-mortgage market before anyone else. So he convinced Wall Street to let him bet on it, even though few were betting on him. The article that became The Big Short.

Michael Lewis Vanity Fair Apr 2010 45min Permalink

Reprints Arts Music

Blow Hard

Scott Storch, a producer who earned six figures for beats he made in less than an hour, was worth an estimated $70 million. Then he blew it all in a bizarre cocaine binge.

Gus Garcia-Roberts Miami New Times Apr 2010 20min Permalink

Best Article

The Chess Master

A grandmaster on the computers that have bested him and how we have misunderstood the implications of artificial intelligence.

Garry Kasparov New York Review of Books Feb 2010 15min Permalink

Arts Movies & TV

Christian Bale May Kill Someone Yet

“Why are you putting all that muddle in your brain that’s not needed to be there?”

An interview about why giving interviews is totally worthless.

John H. Richardson Esquire Dec 2010 Permalink

Arts Media

13 Ways of Looking at Liz Lemon

Thoughts on an emerging brand of feminism and the ridiculousness of claiming that Tina Fey is unattractive.

Sady Doyle Tiger Beatdown Mar 2010 10min Permalink

Tech

Google and Money!

Where the actual online money is centralized, and where Google will have to go to continue chasing it.

Charles Petersen New York Review of Books Dec 2010 20min Permalink

Best Article

The Case of the Vanishing Blonde

“From the start, it was a bad case.

A battered 21-year-old woman with long blond curls was discovered facedown in the weeds, naked, at the western edge of Miami, where the neat grid of outer suburbia butts up against the high grass and black mud of the Everglades.”

Mark Bowden Vanity Fair Dec 2010 30min Permalink

What Good Is Wall Street?

“For years, the most profitable industry in America has been one that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.” The case for why investment banking is socially useless.

John Cassidy New Yorker Nov 2010 30min Permalink

Best Article Business History

Start-Up City

A history of entrepreneurship in New York City, starting with shipping magnate Jeremiah Thompson’s big gamble in the 1820s: scheduled departures.

Edward L. Glaeser City Journal Nov 2010 20min Permalink

Best Article Crime World

La Violencia

Scenes from the new Tijuana: two teenage brothers from the country club set descend into the cartel underworld, bored federales guard the acid pit where hundreds of bodies were erased, families picnic through a chain-link border fence.

Ed Vulliamy Guernica Nov 2010 30min Permalink

Arts Food

Burger Queen

A profile of April Bloomfield, chef at The Spotted Pig.

Lauren Collins New Yorker Nov 2010 35min Permalink

Arts Business Movies & TV

James Frey's Fiction Factory

James Frey is starting a publishing company, paying young writers (very poorly) to reverse engineer a Twilight-esque hit.

Suzanne Mozes New York Nov 2010 20min Permalink

Best Article Arts Movies & TV

Generation Why?

The difference between a social network and a movie about a social network, and what it says about the Facebook generation.

Zadie Smith New York Review of Books Nov 2010 20min Permalink

Tech Media

My Summer on the Content Farm

The perpetually underpaid author takes a moonlighting job with Demand Media, publisher of search-engine optimized articles with titles like “Hair Styles for Women Over 50 With Glasses”, absurdity ensues.

Jessanne Collins The Awl Nov 2010 10min Permalink

Arts Movies & TV

The Myth of Charter Schools

A critique of Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for ‘Superman’.

Diane Ravitch New York Review of Books Oct 2010 20min Permalink

Business

Interview: Matt Taibbi

On Ayn Rand becoming a cult hero to Wall Street insiders and others items that make Matt Taibbi angry.

Greg LaGambini, Matt Taibbi AV Club Nov 2010 15min Permalink

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