Five plus one this week, although the last one probably only matters if you have ties to Long Island.
* From The Atlantic, a look at from where post-election racist tweets emanated. There’s been a fair amount of debate over the practice of outing people, often kids, who say awful things on Twitter, but on this topic I subscribe to the thinking of Shakti Gawain, who said, “Evil is like a shadow – it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light… In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.” And maybe we could make the morons who compound their ignorance by crying “freedom of speech!” after they’re exposed take a civics class to learn what the First Amendment actually means.
* Also from The Atlantic, a piece on the problem with “rape exceptions” in anti-abortion laws. The author makes a pretty compelling case that they’re worthless.
* Brandon Heipp’s piece at BP on the history of “replacement level” in baseball analysis was a great and timely read, given confusion over the term in the religious wars around the AL MVP contest.
* mental_floss delves into the secret lives of six spices. It quotes Giles Milton, whose book Nathaniel’s Nutmeg
* Bookmarked but unread, a short story recommended by Michael Ruhlman called “The End of Baseball.” It’s only accessible if you have Flash, as far as I can tell.
* I concede this is of interest to maybe a handful of people besides me, but this New York Times review of Kushi, a new sushi restaurant in Nesconset, caught my eye because it’s about a mile and a half from the house where I grew up, and which my parents just sold earlier this year. If anyone’s tried it, I’d love to hear how it is.