Andrew LaVallee

• Burger King asks: Would you like chips with that? - USATODAY.com
  The taste of Ketchup & Fries comes down heavily on the ketchup side, and the potato-based chip is formed in a flat rectangle. Flame-Broiled has a smoky meat flavor and is shaped like a traditional chip. (food interesting)
• Smooth and Safe at Pier 94 - New York Times
  There is nothing wrong with art fairs that fewer of them wouldn’t cure. (art criticism economics nyc nyt)
• Dith Pran, Photojournalist and Survivor of the Killing Fields, Dies at 65 - New York Times
  In an e-mail message on Sunday, Mr. Schanberg recalled Mr. Dith’s theory of photojournalism: “You have to be a pineapple. You have to have a hundred eyes.” (asia deaths journalist nyt photography)
• The Baton Passes to Asia - New York Times
  What you feel in Asia, said Claude Smadja, a prominent global strategist, is “a burst of energy, of new dreams, and the end of the era of Western domination and the white man.” (asia economics nyt opinion)
• Bravo’s Chief Reaches Out to the Prosperous Urban Woman - New York Times
  “I’ll dismantle it. I like to dismantle things. I like to put things back together to find the strand of success.” (gay interview media nyt television women)

• Wall St. Journal Makes Politics Its Business
  “People see the hand of Murdoch whether it’s there or not.” (journalism politics washingtonpost wsj)
• The science of religion | Where angels no longer fear to tread | Economist.com
  Religion cries out for a biological explanation.. It has none of the obvious benefits of that other marker of humanity, language. Nevertheless, it consumes huge amounts of resources. Moreover, unlike language, it is the subject of violent disagreements. (economist religion research science)
• ‘I have become an embarrassment’ | Family and relationships | Life and Health
  John Smithers is a pseudonym. He was talking to Jocasta Shakespeare. (british crime guardian sad sex)
• Cover story: ‘China’s new intelligentsia’ by Mark Leonard | Prospect Magazine March 2008 issue 144
  The idea is to avoid confrontation while changing the facts on the ground… they hope to build pockets of an alternative reality–as in Africa–where it is Chinese values and norms that increasingly determine the course of events rather than western on (article asia china economics ideas politics)
• Amber Marks reports on the increase in olfactory surveillance
  The US has similar plans for moths, bees, wasps and cockroaches, and Russia has cross-bred jackals with dogs for an enhanced sense of smell. Even yeast has been genetically manipulated to react to molecules of interest to the security services. (article british crime drugs science security)
• The Topic Is Race; the Art Is Fearless - New York Times
  It’s also in our art, which, at its contrarian and ambiguous best, is always on the job, probing, resisting, questioning and traveling miles ahead down the road. (art criticism nyt race)
• WrestleMania’s lead-in: ‘Nipplegate’
  Even more unsettling is the fact that government is partly responsible for the missing areolas on the banner that hangs on the side of the Lynx office building, facing Interstate 4, and promotes this weekend’s WrestleMania. (advertising news sex)

• Buyers' Revenge: Trash the House After Foreclosure - WSJ.com
  bankers and mortgage companies often find that by the time they get the keys back, embittered homeowners have stripped out appliances, punched holes in walls, dumped paint on carpets and, as a parting gift, locked their pets inside to wreak further havoc. (economics home realestate wsj )
• Talk Dat Ish Ent.:The Blog- Anybody Could Get It!: Events, Events, Events… Ms. Smalls' Life is So Interesting
  It was very funny especially because she performed it to a room full of gay men. Yes, they had go-go dancers with their penises out. That was my first time seeing a white penis in person and no I didn't get a picture of that. (blog funny gay music )
• Mugabe's opponents 'forced to eat election posters' | World news | guardian.co.uk
  According to Amnesty, the officials forced the opposition supporters to chew the posters and swallow them. (africa politics )

• John Hughes’ imprint remains - Los Angeles Times
  “He’s our generation’s J.D. Salinger,” says Kevin Smith (article hollywood lat movies )
• Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog
  “Mario Puzo’s intriguing novel eschews the lyrical as the author instead crafts a poignant tale of family life and muses on the compelling doings of the Mob”.. these 7 words aren’t the only ones overworked by book reviewers.. I haven’t even mentioned ‘limn’ (blog books criticism nyt review )
• Q&A with Dian Hanson, Index magazine
  He thought a lot of men would rather have a female editor who spoke to them directly, whose picture they could see, and who appeared to like sex the way they liked it ­ someone they could come back to see month after month, like a mistress. (interview magazine porn )
• With Economy Tied to Wall St., New York Braces for Job Cuts - New York Times
  Eric Bedoucha, the chef at Financier Patisserie, a downtown bakery, tracks the financial market by the types of cakes his customers buy. “They buy a ‘Good luck!’ cake for when someone is fired and ‘Welcome to our team!’ when someone is hired, (economics finance labor nyt )
• Review of “The Hills”: Career Climbing, With Claws Bared - New York Times
  The show that looked … at the ignominies of youthful friendship has turned toward the more conventional cruelties that good-looking playboys perpetrate on young women who wear low-rise pants and put on boots in warm weather. (nyt reality review sad television )
• Dwelling in Possibilities - ChronicleReview.com
  The primary reason to study Blake.. is not .. to be someone who at a cocktail party is never embarrassed (but can embarrass others). The ultimate reason to read them is to see if they may know you better than you know yourself. (academic article college education literature philosophy youth )
• Dwelling in Possibilities - ChronicleReview.com
  (Gravity, in all senses, is what my students are out to avoid.).. What exactly does it mean to hook up? It means managing to have good sex without activating all the strong feelings that sex usually brings. (academic college computers essay sex youth )
• The Believer - On the Road by Chuck Klosterman
  * A character experiences abstract loss and attempts an exodus from normal life.
  * The character reinvents his or her self-identity while traveling.
  * Along the way, the character encounters iconic individuals who (usually) illustrate authenticity and d (article culture interview movies )

• A Guide to the French. Handle With Care. - New York Times
  Never say ‘Bon app�tit’ at the start of a meal. Don’t talk loudly… Eat hamburgers, pizza, foie gras and sorbet with a fork. Always say ‘bonjour’ to the bus driver, and to fellow passengers on elevators. (europe nyt tips travel )
• How to Walk Like a Model - WSJ.com
  Today, most designers want a natural stroll, and some even post signs backstage saying, “Please, walk naturally.” (fashion wsj )

• Bookshelf Etiquette - Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times Blog
  “Bookshelves are not for displaying books you’ve read. Rather, the books on your shelves are there to convey the type of person you would like to be.” –Ezra Klein (blog books home nyt )
• Selling Lauren Conrad - WSJ.com
  She declined to move to an inside table. Instead, she looked left and right before taking quick bites of her egg whites. “No one eats pretty,” she said.. As she recorded which accessories the models would wear, she called out, “How do you spell ‘beret’?” (celebrity fashion media reality television wsj )
• The L Magazine: The Anxiety of the Middle Class New Yorker By Adam Bonislawski
  intending to make great gobs of money on Wall Street is one thing. To come to New York intending to eke out a quiet existence in some more moderately remunerative field (say, journalism) is quite another. (class essay nyc realestate )
• The Urbane Tomboys | The New York Observer
  “I know guys who love that, who love girls who are like one of the guys… I never was that into that, because I don?t think that the guys in general are that cool… I don’t really like myself, so for a girl to be like me just isn’t something I want (fashion hipsters nyc sex )
• http://landscape.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-delicious-is-changing-academic.html
  As Hannah Arendt understood, the modern democratic state happened when people in public spaces began interacting, and thus began taking action together… Today, Del.icio.us does for the internet what open-air markets did for medieval society. (academic blog collaboration del.icio.us social web2.0 )
• In the Wake of a Crane Collapse, a Home Skewered by a Beam - New York Times
  A bottle of Beaujolais was cut in half and splattered on the floor… “Two inches one way, it hits the gas stove. Two inches the other way, the boiler line… Either way, the building could have exploded. It’s almost as if the house fought back.” (article nyc nyt )

I can’t be the only person looking for the articles nominated for the National Magazine Awards, so I’m piecing this together as I find them. Links to the writers or photographers are included when I could find them. Let me know in the comments if you see something I missed.

Personal Service

• Field & Stream: F&S Survival Guide: Survivor and F&S Survival Guide: Never Get Lost Again, by Keith McCafferty
• Good Housekeeping: Passport to Cheaper Health Care?, by Jennifer Wolff
• O, The Oprah Magazine: O’s Be-Prepared, You’re-Tougher-Than-You-Thought, We’ve-Got-You-Covered Guide to Saving Yourself from Every Imaginable Disaster. And Then Some.
• Popular Mechanics: Facing Down Disaster, by Logan Ward
• Popular Mechanics: Know Your Footprint: Energy; Know Your Footprint: Water; Know Your Footprint: Waste, by Alex Hutchinson

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• Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur
  Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota–a duckbilled dinosaur found in southwestern N.D. in 1999 and announced to the public last Dec–is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. (science )
• Nikki Finke?s Deadline Hollywood Daily » HBO Sales & Marketing Internal Memo
  C1: What does “portal” mean? C2: a “portal” is a time machine that you use that only takes you backwards in time, to when huge companies had a near monopoly on entertainment choices, and could afford to completely misunderstand both audience and m (argument blog comments hollywood television )
• The Week That Shook Wall Street: Inside the Demise of Bear Stearns - WSJ.com
  The past six days have shaken American capitalism… “When you’re looking into the abyss, you don’t quibble over details,” said New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. (article economics finance money wsj )
• fourfour: Amis you much
  Aside from a sense of humor and loyalty, a neck with rhythm is the trait I most seek out in women. You wanna be friends with me, you gotta be able to make it snap. Bottom line. (antm bloggers funny reality television )

• The American Spectator: The Bluest State: How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster
  KELLER HAS THE Massachusetts Boomer liberal nailed. AM radio sharp, he puts the picture in five words: “Aloofness. Arrogance. Entitlement. Condescension. Hypocrisy.” He draws an unsparing portrait of a single-party fiefdom that cares only about who’s a (books class politics review)
• The New Cartographers — In These Times
  these mapping tools are re-locating us as the center of our personal universes. We no longer go to maps to find out where we are. Instead, we tell maps where we are and they form around us on the fly, a sensation that can be comforting or stifling. (community essay google gps map social)
• The Whitney Biennial — New York Magazine Art Review
  These curators seem to think that painting is incapable of addressing the issues of our time or that it’s passe… it’s a shame they didn’t go all the way with that notion. A No Paintings Biennial would’ve at least made everyone hysterical. (art criticism jargon mumblecore museum nyc review)
• An unsanitised history of washing - Times Online
  to risk smelling like a human is a misdemeanour, and the goal is to smell like an exotic fruit or a cookie. The standard we read about in magazines and see on television is a sterilised and synthetic one. (article books british health)
• Fashionomics by Jason Potts
  Fashion fulfils a similar role in the consumer economy, by providing a mechanism to periodically liquidate certain elements of a consumer lifestyle, triggering the incentive to learn about new things and to demand new goods. (culture economics essay fashion)
• China as the Antidote to Oppression and Exploitation? - ChronicleReview.com
  likely success of the Chinese model… will mean that the US will not be able to “impose coercively upon the world its right to an extravagant way of life”.. rise of China will imply a decline in US living standards as cooperation.. replaces exploitation (asian criticism economics europe history politics review)
• The atheist delusion | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books
  central thread of the story is the assertion of free will against faith.. But the idea of free will that informs liberal notions of personal autonomy is biblical in origin (ie Genesis).. like most varieties of atheism.. is a derivative of Xtianity (article british church criticism religion review)
• The 2008 Tournament of Books - The Morning News - What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman v. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  The eponymous Oscar is, as reviews have pointed out, a terrific creation, an enormous heartsick science-fiction nerd, frustrating and heroic and true. And I spent much of the book missing him, even as I admired Diaz’s love for Oscar’s sister, mother, (books criticism literature)
• Backtalk
  The thing is, you wouldn’t know because, frankly, Mother Jones doesn’t go out of its way to market itself to a newer, sexier crowd. A few suggestions to help MJ reach a new audience: 1. Instead of Mother Jones, how about Mutha Fukkas? (comments funny magazine)
• Molly Ivins: I will not support Hillary Clinton for President
  Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough (column opinion politics president)

• The Washington Post’s plan to drag the editing process into the 21st century. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine
  The reason many newspapers rely so heavily on editors–a reason rarely spoken–is that some reporters can’t write. Their copy isn’t edited as much as it’s rewritten. Bennett has a message for them: “Reporters who can’t write are a dying breed.”
• Americans used to be the world’s most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we’re laughingstocks. What happened? - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine
  conferences and reporters with jokes at CEOs’ expense. On a recent 60 Minutes, Icahn complained to Lesley Stahl about the incompetence of American management. “I see our country going off a cliff, and I feel bad about it.”

• The Atlantic Online | April 2008 | Shooting Britney | David Samuels
  “We’ll put up a picture that’s so obviously negative,” Brandy admits, “and we just write something so completely ignorant of the focus of the picture and let the commenters online take care of it.”
• Celebrity-industrial Complex: The Lady Doth Protest Too Much
  Britney Spears is the new weather: a topic we’re all interested in.
• Eater: EaterWire Midday Edition: Red Hook Food Vendors get 6 Year Permit
  “One of the great New York City pleasures is enjoying tacos, huaraches and other fine Latin American cuisine at Red Hook Park,” said Commissioner Benepe. “The Parks Department is happy to keep this longstanding tradition in place by awarding a permi
• The Money Issue - Self-Made Philanthropists by Joe Nocera
  “They are keenly interested in the management of nonprofits, and they are struck by how badly managed most of them are… They have almost a fetish about it. They have an absolute infatuation with focusing on management. Who are the leaders”
• Socialists Re-elected in Spain, After a Bitter Campaign - New York Times
  she was not impressed by tax incentives offered by the two main parties, including the Socialists’ promise of a 400-euro tax rebate, about $620, for all taxpayers. “What good is 400 euros going to do me?” she said. “That’s bread today, hunger tomorrow