Home//The Week Magazine/June 10, 2016/In This Issue
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Editor’s letterBy all rights, I should be rooting for Gawker.com. I’ve spent my working life as an editor and reporter, and believe free speech is one of our most critical rights. But now that the snarky website is facing financial ruin because of a vendetta by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, whom it outed as gay nearly a decade ago (see Controversy), I find myself...conflicted. It would be terrible for my profession and for the country if powerful billionaires with axes to grind could sue publications into financial ruin for running legitimate news stories. But here’s the rub: I don’t consider Gawker’s outing of Thiel as journalism. Ditto for the video it aired of Hulk Hogan having sex. No public interest was served by these mean-spirited intrusions into private sex lives. None.Like…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The fierce fight to retake Fallujah from ISIS controlWhat happenedHumanitarian groups warned of an unfolding “human catastrophe” in Fallujah this week after Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes launched a long-awaited offensive to retake the city from ISIS, amid reports that the jihadist group was herding hundreds of civilians into the center of the city to use as human shields. Located 35 miles west of Baghdad, Fallujah has been in ISIS hands since January 2014, and along with Mosul is one of the militant group’s two remaining strongholds in Iraq. After pushing into the southern suburb of Nuaimiya, Iraqi troops delayed their assault in a bid to protect the 50,000 civilians still trapped in the city. ISIS fighters fought back ferociously, using tunnels, deploying snipers, and sending six explosives-laden cars that were destroyed before they reached their targets.…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The U.S. at a glanceSacramentoBrown backs Clinton: Days before California’s crucial Democratic primary, Gov. Jerry Brown this week dropped his long-standing feud with the Clintons and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president— saying that the former first lady represents the “only path” to stopping Donald Trump from taking the White House. Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been locked in a dead heat in California in the run-up to the June 7 vote, and though it is mathematically impossible for Sanders to win enough delegates to secure the nomination, a California victory for the Vermont senator could further divide the party ahead of July’s convention. In an open letter, Brown, who fought his own bitter presidential primary battle against Bill Clinton in 1992, praised Sanders for highlighting the fact that “the top 1 percent has unfairly…4 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016GossipJohnny Depp and Amber Heard’s split turned ugly last week, as a Los Angeles judge granted Heard, 30, a temporary restraining order against Depp, 52, who she claimed was “verbally and physically abusive” throughout their 15-month marriage. Heard, who filed for divorce May 22, supplied the court with photos showing apparent bruises on her cheek—sustained, she alleges, after Depp hurled an iPhone at her face. “Johnny has had a long and widely acknowledged public and private history of drug and alcohol abuse,” Heard said. “He has a short fuse.” Depp denies Heard’s claims of domestic violence, suggesting in court documents that she “is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.” The actor received support from former partner Vanessa Paradis—mother of his two teenage children—who in a letter…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016It must be true... I read it in the tabloidsA Texas man called police to report he’d been shot, but when cops arrived, they discovered he was so high on marijuana he didn’t realize his dog had bitten him. The man had been smoking weed on his porch when a thunderstorm arrived. “The loud thunder scared one of his dogs, causing it to nip the ‘victim’ in the left buttock,” a police spokesman said. “He believed he’d been shot.” As a prank, two California teenagers put a pair of eyeglasses on the floor of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and sure enough, visitors crowded around the stranded specs, mistaking them for an avant-garde exhibit. The teenagers, Kevin Nguyen, 16, and TJ Khayatan, 17, had been amused that some of the museum’s exhibits were considered art. “This is…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Best columns: InternationalMALAYSIAIslam reduced to marketingFarouk PeruThe Malay MailWhat makes a smartphone Islamic? asked Farouk Peru. The question is nonsensical, of course, because Islam is about being at peace with Allah, not texting your friends. But one entrepreneur has attempted to answer it anyway. Indian Muslim scholar Zakir Naik has released what he calls the world’s first Islamic smartphone. It was probably made in China, almost certainly not by Muslims, so what is so Islamic about it? Easy: It features all of Naik’s apps, 80 hours of his lectures, a selection of Islamic art as wallpaper, and even “Islamic ringtones.” Of course, Naik is notorious for his denunciation of Shiite and Sufi concepts, so those branches of Islam aren’t included. In fact, no other Sunni scholarship is preloaded onto the phone. Could…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016NotedThe U.S. Navy is developing a supergun that uses magnetic rails to fire a 25-pound projectile at 4,500 miles per hour. Like an incoming meteorite, the projectiles carry so much kinetic energy they can blow holes in enemy ships, destroy tanks, level terrorist camps, and blast enemy missiles out of the sky. “This is going to change the way we fight,” said Adm. Mat Winter, head of the Office of Naval Research.The Wall Street Journal About 46 percent of Americans say they do not have enough available money to cover a $400 emergency expense—a slight improvement from 2013, when the figure was 50 percent.WashingtonPost.com About half of the misogynistic tweets containing the words “slu*t” and “whor*” during a recent three-week period were sent by women, according to a new study…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Hiroshima: Obama’s momentous visitWell, that “could have been worse,” said Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com. When President Obama made a historic visit to Hiroshima last week—the first by a sitting U.S. president since the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city in 1945—many feared he “wouldn’t be able to resist his impulse to apologize.” Instead, the president gave “a fairly anodyne address” about the inhumanity of war, met a group of survivors, and repeated his previous calls for a nuclear-free world. The bombing of Hiroshima—which, together with the attack on Nagasaki three days later, killed more than 200,000 people—remains a controversial decision, said Jacob Weisberg in Slate.com. Most historians believe it was the only way to bring an immediate end to World War II, averting a U.S. invasion of Japan that…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Transportation: Carmakers embrace ride sharing“Automakers have Silicon Valley envy,” said Davey Alba in Wired.com. “Driving yourself around in a car you own, it turns out, isn’t the only way to get around anymore,” and automakers have finally decided they can no longer idle in neutral while tech startups transform the way people move around cities. Just months after GM invested $500 million in the ride-sharing app Lyft, Toyota announced last week that it’s partnering with Uber, exploring new services that include allowing people to “automatically deduct their car payments from the fares they make as Uber drivers.” That same day, Volkswagen announced a $300 million investment in Israeli startup Gett, an Uber rival popular in Europe. Even though auto sales hit a record high in 2015, carmakers are hedging their bets, said Mike Isaac…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Author of the weekGarrard ConleyGarrard Conley knows firsthand intolerance’s costs— and its complexities, said Amy Gall in BarnesAnd NobleReview.com. When the Arkansas-born writer was 19, his father, a Baptist preacher, enrolled him in a therapy program that promised to cure its participants of hom*osexuality. Two weeks later, Conley was close to suicide. Though the experience haunted him, he didn’t consider his father’s thinking unusual, and years later was surprised by the reaction of classmates when he shared his memories in a graduateschool writing class. “The big question in that room was, How could any parent do that to a child?” he says. “My answer was, Have you never been to Arkansas? Do you not know what it’s like growing up in a fundamentalist family?” His new memoir, Boy Erased, aims to bridge that…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016New on DVD and Blu-rayHail, Caesar!(Universal, $30)It didn’t do boffo business, but Joel and Ethan Coen’s recent send-up of 1950s Hollywood remains a “scintillating, uproarious” comedy, said The New Yorker. Josh Brolin stars as a fixer whose biggest challenge is hushing up the kidnapping of one of his studio’s big stars.Le Amiche(Criterion, $40)This 1955 drama directed by Michelangelo Antonioni “bears the first signs of the cinema-changing style for which he would soon be world-famous,” said Indiewire.com. When a woman in Turin attempts suicide, her friends seek to understand and begin questioning their own romantic lives.Vinyl: The Complete First Season(HBO, $50)When this series about the 1970s music industry sticks to its subject, it’s very strong, said AVClub.com. Co-creators Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger bear some blame for the unrewarding detours into addiction and even murder,…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Show of the weekO.J.: Made in AmericaMaybe we underestimated O.J. Simpson. In this profound seven-plus-hour documentary, the disgraced football star emerges as a figure worthy of myth: A son of a broken home, he ran so well that he left poverty and race behind him, but not the violence endemic to his sport and his nation. Simpson’s trial for the 1994 murder of his wife, Nicole, gives director Ezra Edelman a natural climax, but the film, which will air in five parts, contextualizes that spectacle—by showing how race shaped each chapter of Simpson’s life and by getting in close at every step. Begins Saturday, June 11, at 9 p.m., ABC…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Whisky: The non-ScotsOnly a Scottish distiller can sell “scotch,” but the spirit itself can be produced “wherever barley will grow and water flows,” said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. Non-Scottish single-malt whiskies— meaning whisky made at a single distillery from only water and malted barley—are proliferating, and some, sadly, taste like “unfortunate experiments by hobbyists.” Texas’ Balcones is firstclass, though, as are these imports.Navazos Palazzi ($100). Our panel’s top choice is a “complex and savory” Spanish whisky aged in Palo Cortado sherry casks. It tastes of toffee, clover, iron, and butter.Lord Lieutenant Kinahan’ ($62). This smooth 10-year Irish whisky offers “mellow flavors of fruit, flowers, butterscotch, and spices.”Hakushu 12 Year ($85). Japan produces many great single malts, including this “exuberant and multilayered” award winner.…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Getting the flavor of...A celebrated Hawaiian sunrisePeople have long told me that witnessing a sunrise from Maui’s Haleakala volcano is “bucket-list essential,” and I agree—to a point, said Susan Casey in Sunset. The morning that I finally woke at 3 a.m. and drove in darkness to the 10,000-foot peak delivered a sunrise muted by cloud cover and accompanied by the expected winter-like cold. But as Jack London wrote, “Haleakala has a message of beauty and wonder for the soul that cannot be delivered by proxy,” so I will treasure that sunrise the way I do many other memories of Haleakala National Park. The first band of light at the horizon barely disturbed the darkness. But then the light grew, and “cobalt blues and fiery oranges with golden undertones threw off hints of apricot.”…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016This week: Homes in country clubs1. Elum, Wash. This fourbedroom log house lies on a golf course in a 2,600-acre private community called Tumble Creek. The 7,784-square-foot home on the 12th hole has a guest wing, a theater room, and a fitness room with a spa bath and direct access to the pool. The master suite features a sitting area, a deck, a Japanese soaking tub, and a see-through water wall. $2,999,950. Brian Hopper, Realogics/Sotheby’s International Realty, (425) 201-51152. Scottsdale, Ariz. This Spanish-style home was built in 2006 in a golf community designed by Jack Nick laus. The four-bedroom house has limestone and hardwood floors, a sugar pine library, exposed beams, and a wine room. The 2.8-acre property includes a mosaic-tiled pool, views of Pin na cle Peak, and access to the clubhouse and pools.…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Oatmeal: It’s what’s for dinnerInspired by the success of McDonald’s all-day breakfast, food marketers are hoping to persuade consumers to eat morning staples for lunch, dinner, and dessert, said Ellen Byron in The Wall Street Journal. With diners “increasingly agnostic about assigning foods to specific times of day,” food companies see a chance to expand the horizons of traditional breakfast items. Although 90 percent of oatmeal is consumed in the morning, Quaker Foods says more people are eating it as a snack, prompting the firm to publish recipes on its website for oatmeal topped with savory ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, cheddar, and olives. Noosa Yoghurt plans to launch a line of spicy yogurts for “later in the day,” with flavors like blackberry serrano, pineapple jalapeño, and mango sweet chili. And General Mills is “overhauling…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Charity of the weekChildren are expensive, and many families struggle to afford essential items like diapers, car seats, and safe cribs. Over the past 15 years, the Good+ Foundation (goodplusfoundation.org), formerly known as Baby Buggy, has donated more than 20 million baby items to needy families across the U.S. The New York City– based organization recently expanded its mission in order to support the entire family, partnering with more than 100 antipoverty programs around the country. These partners accept Good+ Foundation donations and integrate them into their own programs, including job training, father engagement, and parenting help, to offer sustaining support to families in need. Many of the programs are built around an incentive-based model, which aims to help families who meet educational and professional goals.Each charity we feature has earned a four-star…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The CEO who made healthy eating mainstreamCharles M. Harper 1927–2016When Charles “Mike” Harper suffered a heart attack in 1985, he was forced to radically change his diet, and in the process, he transformed the way Americans eat. Then chief executive of the agricultural powerhouse ConAgra, Harper was ordered by his doctors to cut down on calories, fat, and salt, so his wife, Jean, whipped him up some low-sodium turkey chili. It was a revelation. “Hospital food tastes like hell, and this tasted good,” Harper recalled. The epiphany inspired him to develop Healthy Choice frozen foods, the first mainstream line geared for a lower-calorie diet. To launch the brand, Harper invited leading food editors and critics to New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, where waiters in tuxedos theatrically presented the frozen meals on black plastic plates. It…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The code breaker who helped sink the BismarckJane Fawcett 1921-2016On May 25, 1941, Jane Fawcett spotted something that led to one of the Allied forces’ most celebrated naval successes of World War II. Working at Bletchley Park, the home of British code breaking, the then 20-year-old realized that an intercepted message revealed that the mighty German battleship Bismarck was heading to the French port of Brest. Fawcett told her superiors, and within 48 hours the Bismarck had been located and sunk by the Royal Navy—the first time British code breakers had directly contributed to an Allied military victory. “It was a great tragedy,” Fawcett said of the 2,000 German sailors who went down with the battleship, “but everything about war is a tragedy and we had to be glad that we were in a position to help.”Born…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016A hotel run by robotsJAPAN HAS A national gift for holding in balance the stateliness of tradition and the marvel of novelty. So it ought to come as no surprise that on the western margin of the archipelago, on a serene bay in a remote area of the Nagasaki Prefecture, there is an enormous theme park dedicated to the splendors of imperial Holland. It follows with perfect logic that the historical theme park’s newest lodging place is the world’s first hotel staffed almost entirely by robots.The hotel, even before it opened last summer, received extensive coverage in the international and domestic press for its promise of novel ease and convenience. But when I arrived at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park very late one humid summer night, just days after the fanfare of the…9 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Clinton on the defensive over email reportWhat happenedHillary Clinton continued to defend her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state this week, following the release of a scathing report into the practice by the State Department inspector general. The report, which also criticized some of Clinton’s predecessors for using private email accounts while in office, contradicted the likely Democratic nominee’s repeated assertions that she hadn’t broken any rules. It found that she and her staff had neither sought nor received permission to use private email for official business, had violated her department’s record-keeping regulations, and had ignored warnings that hackers were targeting personal email accounts. Clinton’s correspondence would have been subject to freedom of information scrutiny had she used a State Department server; although she handed over 30,000 emails to…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Trump lambastes media for questioning donationsWhat happenedDonald Trump launched a frontal attack on the press this week, bitterly berating journalists covering his presidential campaign for what he claimed was “dishonest” and unflattering scrutiny of his donations to veterans’ groups. For weeks, reporters have been pressing the presumptive GOP nominee and his aides to account for the whereabouts of $6 million in donations Trump claimed to have raised for veterans during a splashy telethonstyle fundraiser in Iowa in January—held the same night as a Fox News GOP debate that Trump boycotted. After repeatedly providing vague answers, Trump’s campaign called a press conference this week, at which the real-estate mogul stated that $5.6 million had been raised and read aloud all 41 groups that he said had received money. Several media outlets later confirmed, however, that at…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The world at a glanceGuantánamo Bay, CubaAging detainees: With just months to go in President Obama’s last term, there is still no plan to close the U.S. military prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, and commanders are now planning for the longterm detention of the 80 remaining inmates. Some of the prisoners have already been held for nearly 15 years. “At some point, if detention operations continue here, we will have to address, ‘Are the doors in the cells wide enough to move wheelchairs in and out? Are there ramps to reach the medical facilities?’” said Rear Adm. Peter Clarke, the detention center commander. Though 28 of the captives have been cleared for release, the State Department has yet to find countries that will take them in.Ciudad Victoria, MexicoSoccer star frees himself: Soccer star Alan…7 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016American isolationismWhat is isolationism?In purest form, it’s a nation’s total retreat from the world stage. The term, however, usually describes a policy of noninterventionism: avoiding foreign alliances and conflicts, and waging war only if attacked. Much of U.S. history reflects an ambivalent tension between the desire to withdraw from messy foreign problems and the belief America should serve as the dominant force in world affairs—“the indispensable nation,” as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it. Isolationist sentiment has ebbed and flowed, often surging during hard economic times or in the wake of costly wars. Donald Trump’s promise to put “America First” thus echoes many previous eras in our history, dating back to the Founders.How were the Founders isolationist?They saw America’s geographical separation from Europe as an ideal opportunity to cultivate…5 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Best columns: EuropeUNITED KINGDOMLondon’s vacant towersSimon JenkinsThe GuardianLondon is studded with monstrous towers that nobody lives in, said Simon Jenkins. The tacky, 50-story building that looms over Vauxhall, for example, houses empty luxury apartments “owned by absent Russians, Nigerians, and Chinese” who bought them as investments. Such towers make “no more contribution to London than a gold bar in a bank vault,” yet they take up much more space, “a great smudge of tainted wealth on the horizon.” This real estate horror spree began in 2003 under London’s first elected mayor, the leftist Ken Livingstone. Property developers wined and dined him at French châteaus, and soon he was their greatest champion, allowing any development—“the taller the better.” His Tory successor, Boris Johnson, was just as bad: He, too, approved nearly everything developers…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016How they see us: The lessons of HiroshimaJapan commends President Obama for his symbolic and moving visit to Hiroshima last week, said the Yomiuri Shimbun(Japan) in an editorial. The first sitting U.S. president to visit the scene of the atomic devastation his country wreaked, Obama bowed his head and laid a wreath at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. “We listen to a silent cry,” Obama said. “A wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.” The president did not say that his country was wrong to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But his words and his manner showed “an underlying understanding of the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons and the atrocity of war.”Some Japanese expected more from Obama, said Ayako Mie in The Japan Times. Though the White…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016A death at the zoo: Why was a gorilla shot?Fascinated by Harambe, a western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, a 4-year-old boy last week crawled through a woodand-wire barrier to get closer to the endangered animal. He tumbled into the enclosure, landing in a shallow moat. At first, the immensely powerful, 450-pound ape seemed to be acting protectively toward the youngster, gently standing him up out of the water. But as panicked onlookers screamed, Harambe grew agitated and dragged the child through the water by the ankle. After 10 harrowing minutes, zoo staff shot the gorilla dead, which “unleashed an outpouring of grief,” that quickly “turned to fury,” said Peter Holley in The Washington Post. Animal advocates started a “Justice for Harambe” Facebook page that got more than 100,000 likes, and circulated online petitions calling for the boy’s…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The other national parksThe National Park Service turns 100 in August, marking a century of stewardship of our country’s significant natural, cultural, and historic places. The first national park, Yellowstone, was actually designated in 1872, and in the years that followed, conservationists—particularly John Muir—successfully advocated for the creation of other protected parklands. In 1903, Muir took President Theo dore Roose velt on a three-night camping trip to what is now Yosemite National Park, persuading him to put the area under federal protection. By the time President Wood row Wilson signed the act creating the Park Ser vice as a federal bureau in the De partment of the Interior, in 1916, there were 35 national parks and monuments in existence.Today, the service oversees more than 450 locations, including national battlefields, historic sites, monuments, memorials,…8 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Innovation of the weekGoogle has teamed up with Levi’s to make the world’s smartest jean jacket, said Nikki Ekstein in Bloomberg.com. Designed specifically for commuting bikers, the jacket boasts a subtle patch of conductive fibers in the sleeve that allows the wearer to “tap or swipe across its surface and toggle a series of customizable commands,” from silencing calls and changing songs to getting directions to the nearest coffee shop. All of the info is conveyed via audio, so the cyclist won’t be distracted, and the metalbased conductive fibers are fully washable. Google plans to eventually make the technology—dubbed Project Jacquard— available to thirdparty designers and app developers to create their own connected clothing. The Commuter Trucker jacket will be available as part of Levi’s Spring 2017 collection, though there’s no word yet…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Movies on TVMonday, June 6Gran TorinoA bitter old coot lowers his guard long enough to befriend the Hmong-American teenager who tried to steal his cherished muscle car. Clint Eastwood stars and directs. (2008) 7:30 p.m., AMCTuesday, June 7WhiplashOscar winner J.K. Simmons is frighteningly good as a sad*stic music-conservatory teacher who terrorizes an aspiring jazz drummer. (2014) 6:10 p.m., EncoreWednesday, June 8The ChaseRobert Redford plays an escaped convict and Marlon Brando a Texas sheriff who tries to protect him from a vigilante mob. Arthur Penn directs. (1966) 10:45 p.m., GetTVThursday, June 9BoyhoodRichard Linklater’s magnum opus is a coming-of-age story so committed to veracity that it was shot periodically over 12 years to track its protagonist from ages 6 to 18. With Oscar winner Patricia Arquette. (2014) 5 p.m., ShowtimeFriday, June 10Sunset BoulevardGloria Swanson…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Critics’ choice: Labors of love in three citiesStaplehouse AtlantaAny honest diner knows that the ideal neighborhood restaurant might be more fantasy than reality, said Brett Martin in GQ. But when I walked into this former grocery store in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, “I felt as close to the dream as I ever had before.” Staplehouse has a poignant backstory: Co-founder Jen Hidinger once thought she’d be launching the place with her chef husband. But when Ryan Hidinger died of cancer in 2013, his sister and her husband stepped in. Together the three have created a place you can walk into on any given night and settle in, as if you’re family, for a string of dishes that are “both immaculate and soulful.” One recent five-course tasting menu featured a chickenliver tart with radicchio and satsuma puree, a…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016This week’s dream: A remote land of myth in southernmost GreeceThough the ancient Greeks believed gods roamed Mani, visitors today are pretty much left to their own devices, said Jim Yardley in Travel + Leisure. Reaching the rocky, arid tip of the Peloponnese “has never been easy”: Until a half century ago, the road connecting the peninsula to the rest of Greece stopped many miles north of Mani’s most distant villages, and if you approached those small settlements by ship, you took a chance of being attacked by homegrown pirates. Today, continental Greece’s southernmost point remains “one of Europe’s most isolated and starkly beautiful regions,” with a coastline “peppered with idyllic spots to swim or sunbathe.” Driving past Areopoli, the region’s capital, I “cut through a sun-baked valley where olive groves were pinched between gray cliffs and the striking blue…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Last-minute travel dealsIreland by B&Enjoy five nights in Ireland at a luxury hotel and four bedand-breakfasts of your choice for $799 a person, double occupancy, including airfare from New York and a rental car. Book by June 10 for travel in November and December. travelzoo.comSummer rates in PhoenixThe Phoenix Renaissance hotel is offering 55 percent discounts on weekend stays. A fiveblock walk brings you to the Orpheum Theater and Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Book by June 15; valet parking included. travelzoo.comA Costa Rican adventureDip into volcanic hot springs and explore 100 miles of Guanacaste beaches this August with a hotel-and-air package that starts at $850. The six-night TripMasters offer includes a two-night stay at Arenal Volcano. tripmasters.com…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The news at a glanceLabor: Weeks-long Verizon strike nears an endNearly 40,000 striking Verizon employees across the East Coast returned to work this week, ending one of the largest walkouts by American workers in years, said Jennifer Peltz in the Associated Press. Verizon and two major unions struck a tentative contract agreement last week, with notable concessions from both sides. The deal, still subject to approval by union members in the next few weeks, includes about 1,500 new unionized jobs and a nearly 11 percent raise over four years, combined with health-care plan changes that will save the company money. The strike began in mid-April, but many employees have been working without a contract since August.The concessions won by the unions are a much-needed “shot in the arm” for organized labor, which has seen…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Payment tech: Is Venmo making us stingy?The popular payment app Venmo might take the pain out of splitting the check at brunch, but it’s “turning our friends into petty jerks,” said Kari Paul in Qz.com. The seven-year-old app, which connects directly to users ’ bank accounts, makes it a cinch to send and request money via smartphone. Need to divvy up the utility bill with roommates or split the happy hour tab with colleagues? “Among those under age 30 or so, ‘Venmo me’ is a common request.” But its convenience has also “emboldened the tight-fisted among us.” Stories abound of friends nickel-and-diming one another with passive-aggressive invoices, from a request for $3.79 for a cup of coffee to the $2 difference between co*cktails and cab fare. It used to be that friends trusted each other to…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Best columns: BusinessWrong about sluggish wages?Robert SamuelsonThe Washington PostYou’ve probably heard the endlessly repeated complaint that Americans’ wages have stagnated, said Robert Samuelson. “But what if it’s not true?” A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco complicates this conventional wisdom, concluding that “widely cited figures showing stagnation are mostly a statistical fluke.” In fact, wage increases for workers continuously employed in full-time jobs outpaced inflation from 2002 to 2015. Last year, for instance, paychecks actually grew 3.5 percent after inflation, up from 1.2 percent in 2010. The confusion probably stems from the fact that most pundits and politicians cite the median wage as evidence that Americans aren’t getting raises. But the median wage figure—the wage exactly in the middle of all wages—is “misleading,” because it is heavily influenced…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The Puzzle PageCrossword No. 363: Be a DahlACROSS1 Shriek5 Give or take, for example9 Be starstruck13 Jacob’s twin14 One way to read a book16 Shallowest Great Lake17 No. 1 hit in 1962 for the Four Seasons, or No. 1 hit for Fergie in 200620 Yelp reviewers, often21 Skin issues22 Patty Hearst’s kidnappers, briefly23 Some laptops24 Casper is one30 Following stylistically31 Horse, in poetry32 Milk shake ingredients, sometimes34 Attila’s people36 Tendon or ligament38 Light brown39 North-south range41 Part of a flight43 “I wish you hadn’t told me that”44 Galápagos Islands creature47 Lincoln and Ford48 Abbr. in some city names49 Make it out52 Simpson’s singing partner56 Director of a forthcoming film whose title (with The) is spelled out by the first words of the previous theme entries59 War reporter Ernie60 Dry, like humor61 NBA…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016It wasn’t all badHenry Heimlich, the 96-year-old surgeon who created the Heimlich maneuver, has demonstrated his namesake technique countless times over the years but only ever used it once in an emergency—until last week. That’s when Heimlich was eating lunch at the Cincinnati senior center where he lives and noticed a woman choking. Heimlich reached his arms around Patty Gill Ris, 87, and dislodged a piece of hamburger that was blocking her airway. “I waited to see if he needed any assistance,” said Perry Gaines, an employee at the center. “Of course he didn’t.”When Micah McDade made his way across the stage at his graduation from Okmulgee High School in Oklahoma last week, it was a walk he’ll never forget. The teen was born with cerebral palsy and has been confined to a…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Media: A billionaire’s revenge on GawkerBillionaire Peter Thiel has just given every rich businessman “a dangerous blueprint” for subverting America’s free press, said Felix Salmon in Fusion.net.Thiel, an eccentric Silicon Valley entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, admitted last week he’s been funding a secret, decade-long legal war against Gawker Media. Back in 2007, Gawker outed Thiel, saying he “is totally gay.” Rather than suing the website himself, Thiel secretly bankrolled multiple lawsuits by other people who felt they’d been wronged by the aggressive website and its founder, Nick Denton. The biggest of these cases involved former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, who sued for invasion of privacy after Gawker published footage of Hogan having sex with a friend’s wife. In March, a Florida jury awarded Hogan a stunning $140 million,…5 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016PeopleSevigny’s grief over how New York has changedChloë Sevigny is feeling very jaded, said Xan Brooks in The Guardian (U.K.). One of New York City’s coolest style icons, the actress and model moved to the grungy East Village as a teen in the early 1990s, and has been the star of the city’s indie scene ever since. But the neighborhood ain’t what it used to be, says Sevigny. “The East Village, it’s lost. Have you seen Astor Place? Starbucks, Citibank, Kmart, and that’s about it. Some of the streets are still holding out—you can still find a few of the old mom-andpop stores. The avenues? Forget it. They’re gone for good.” Sevigny has fled to Brooklyn. “I got out, in all honesty, because of rats. After Hurricane Sandy, my street…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Best columns: The U.S.How to curb presidential powerGlenn ReynoldsUSA TodayFor the good of our country, Americans need to “elect a white, male Republican” as president, said Glenn Reynolds. That may sound stunningly racist—but it may be the only way to wake up the liberal mainstream media to the dangers of an imperial presidency. While Barack Obama brazenly expanded executive power over the past eight years, a pundit class “dominated by lefties” shrugged or looked the other way because, well, they agreed with Obama’s goals. But now that liberals are terrified by the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, “large swaths of the commentariat” finally see sweeping executive power “as a possible threat to the republic.” It’s an outrage, we’re told, when Trump makes “veiled threats to journalists,” though Obama had his minions seize…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Europe: How to stop the migrant drownings“Europe’s migration crisis is far from over,” said The Daily Telegraph(U.K.) in an editorial. In the past week, more than 700 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as they tried to cross from Libya to Italy. “Harrowing images” of dead children and traumatized sailors are once again on the front pages of our newspapers. Mercifully, more than 6,000 migrants were plucked from the waters alive, but their rescue poses another problem, as Italy must now find food and shelter for them. Next week will bring yet more migrants, and the week after that still more. Europe duped itself into thinking that the closure of the Balkan land route from Greece to Germany had stemmed the human flow. But alas, there is no shortage of people “desperate enough to risk all…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Trump: The volatile psyche of a potential presidentWho is Donald Trump, really, and “how does his mind work?” asked psychologist Dan McAdams in The Atlantic. “How might he go about making decisions in office, were he to become president?” Now that the bombastic businessman is one election away from moving into the White House, questions about his “unique psychological makeup” have taken on greater urgency. Trump’s combination of grandiose narcissism, sky-high extroversion, and deeply rooted anger—coupled with his view of life as a series of “Darwinian” struggles between winners and losers— suggests a presidency “that could be highly combustible.” If elected to our country’s most powerful position, Trump will probably be “a daring and ruthlessly aggressive decision maker” who doesn’t worry about unforeseen consequences. He’s likely to be “tough. Bellicose. Threatening. Explosive.”Trump’s “abject inability to tolerate criticism…4 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Wit & Wisdom“The prouder a man is, the more he thinks he deserves; and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve.”Henry Ward Beecher, quoted in the New York Post“One of the problems with defending free speech is you often have to defend people that you find to be outrageous and unpleasant and disgusting.”Salman Rushdie, quoted in The Washington Post“What is the point of being alive if you don’t try to do something remarkable?”Author John Green, quoted in the Auburn, Calif., Journal“Fashion changes, but style endures.”Coco Chanel, quoted in Express.co.uk“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.”André Gide, quoted in The Wall Street Journal“As you get older, it ’s more difficult to have heroes but it’s just as necessary.”Ernest Hemingway, quoted in The…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016For an urban summer getawayChicagoChicago comes alive with things to do once it shakes off winter. One way to enjoy the warmer weather while getting a feel for the city is with a Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise. The 90-minute tour along the Chicago River spotlights 50 buildings dating from the 1890s to the present; highlights include the Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, and the 110-story Willis Tower. Many walking tours focus on the city’s 700-piece public art collection, which features works by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Marc Chagall. Most famous is Anish Kapoor’s 110-ton Cloud Gate, nicknamed “the Bean,” in Millennium Park—itself a destination for outdoor concerts, festivals, and other events. Other fun things to do: Go to a Cubs or White Sox game; walk the 606, a rail…4 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Bytes: What’s new in techNukes and floppy disks“America’s nuclear arsenal depends on a surprising relic of the 1970s that few of us may recall: the humble floppy disk,” said Brian Fung in The Washington Post. The magnetic, 8-inch data storage devices are still used to run a key communications system that coordinates nuclear bombers and intercontinental ballistic missile systems, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. To use the disks, the Pentagon has to maintain “a collection of IBM Series/1 computers that to most people would look more at home in a museum than in a missile silo.” Perhaps even more remarkable: The military doesn’t plan to phase the disks out until the end of fiscal year 2017. One reason: Using old systems disconnected from digital networks “actually acts as a buffer…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The Book ListBest books...chosen by Sebastian JungerJournalist Sebastian Junger is the author of The Perfect Storm and co-director of the Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo. His new book, Tribe, posits that PTSD is caused less by trauma than by the individualist culture veterans return to.At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen (Vintage, $17). Two mercenaries fly a plane into the remote Amazon jungle and are then hired to bomb an indigenous village. One of them decides to join the villagers instead, and when he parachutes out of his plane, he lands in their midst as a god...Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage, $16). A former professor living on a Tennessee River houseboat ekes out a livelihood selling his catch, then drinks away his profits with Knoxville’s misfits and miscreants. McCarthy’s…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Review of reviews: FilmMe Before YouDirected by Thea Sharrock (PG-13)A handsome invalid bonds with his pretty attendant.This adaptation of a best-selling Jojo Moyes novel “seems like a real missed opportunity,” said Alonso Duralde in TheWrap.com. In an era bereft of bigscreen love stories, this tale about an embittered (but goodlooking) quadriplegic who falls for the woman hired to lift his spirits “could have been a pleasurable two-hankie romance.” But the movie’s potential is squandered by “a terminal case of the cutesies,” led by a heroine so cheerily optimistic that she’s “fairly insufferable.” Though co-stars Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin are “effortlessly appealing actors,” they’re limited by Moyes’ screenplay, said Andrew Barker in Variety. Worse, when it’s revealed that Claflin’s wheelchair-bound former banker and adventure seeker has been pondering assisted suicide, the movie enters…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The Week’ s guide to what’s worth watchingAngie TribecaIf you think slapstick is dead, Rashida Jones would like a word. The star of this police spoof was delightfully deadpan throughout the Naked Gun–like absurdities that piled up around her during the show’s 10-episode first season. Just five months later, she’s back for more, facing down her fear of canines in Season 2’s first episode after a murder in a dog park. Guests this summer will include James Franco, Heather Graham, and Eriq La Salle. Monday, June 6, at 9 p.m., TBSUnRealIt’s no secret that dating shows manipulate reality — and the words of contestants—to generate racy TV. To let viewers in on the behind-the-cameras sorcery, this surprisingly wicked series follows the female co-producers of a fictional reality series as they toy with the lives of one Prince…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Recipe of the weekLocal strawberries are just hitting farmers’ markets in our area, so there’s no better time to make this “simple but stunning” dessert, said Ellie Krieger in The Washington Post. Tossing the berries with lemon juice and honey makes them “even more sumptuous.” Folding Greek yogurt into the whipped cream adds a “lovely tang.” Finally, the crumbled amaretti “lend a contrasting crunch.”Strawberry-amaretto parfaits1 tbsp fresh lemon juice • 1 tbsp honey • 1 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced • 1∕3 cup well-chilled heavy cream • 2 tbsp sugar • . tsp almond extract • 1∕3 cup plain low-fat Greek-style yogurt • 14 small amaretti (Italian macaroons)• In a medium bowl, whisk together lemon juice and honey. Add strawberries and toss gently to coat. In another bowl, combine heavy cream, sugar, and…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Hotel of the weekAthensWasAthens“It doesn’t get much more central than this,” said Sarah Khan in The New York Times. The AthensWas, an ultramodern boutique property opened last year by Anemi Hotels, stands in the shadow of the Acropolis and a short walk from Ermou, Athens’ main shopping promenade. The hotel’s 21 rooms have “a funky, contemporary look,” with bold carpets and Le Corbusier armchairs, plus bathrooms done up in Greek marble and wood. A generous breakfast is served in the sleek lobby restaurant, but for dinner you want to get to the popular roof bar: “It has what must be one of the best views of the Parthenon.’”athenswas.gr; doubles from $235…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016ConsumerThe 2017 GMC Acadia: What the critics sayAutomobilePreviously “a three-row mommy machine,” the GMC Acadia has shed 740 pounds in its latest incarnation to emerge as a “much nimbler” SUV primed to compete with other midsize vehicles in the heart of the SUV market. Shortened by 7 inches and thinned by more than 3, the new Acadia has sacrificed nearly 40 cubic feet in cargo space. But GMC buyers who want truck-like dimensions can still buy a first-generation Acadia through 2017, or move up to a Yukon. This vehicle, built on a Cadillac platform, “hustles more like a car-based crossover, and it steers, stops, and accelerates with less recalcitrance.”Motor TrendThe weight loss has allowed GMC to offer a smaller engine in the $29,070 base model. Though that four-cylinder “whined, as…4 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The bottom lineAfter years of increases, top CEO pay fell last year. The average compensation package for the 200 highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. declined to $19.3 million in 2015, from $22.6 million in 2014. Last year was the first year since 2012 that no firm awarded its CEO more than $100 million.The New York Times Since 2009, the U.S. has brought 156 criminal and civil cases against 10 of the largest Wall Street banks, resulting in charges against 47 people, but only one boardroom-level executive. In 81 percent of the cases, individual employees were neither identified nor charged.The Wall Street Journal Students who attend forprofit colleges actually make less money after leaving school, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. While community college students saw an annual…1 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016What the experts sayThe tricky math of survivor benefitsBe sure to carefully crunch the numbers before taking Social Security survivor benefits, said Mark Miller in Reuters.com. When a spouse dies, the survivor must choose between taking the late partner’s benefits or his or her own. Usually it’s straightforward: Those age 70 and over “should take the larger of the two benefits.” But in some cases, widows and widowers can increase their lifetime payout by taking their spouse’s benefit first, even if it’s smaller, and letting their own benefit grow by 8 percent a year until age 70. Much depends on the survivor’s life expectancy and the late partner’s earnings. For instance, a 66-year-old widow whose own benefit would be $2,000 a month might first choose to take her late husband’s $1,500 a month…2 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016Issue of the week: Game of thrones at Viacom“This summer’s guilty-pleasure beach read won’t be found on your Kindle or at your local bookstore,” said Shirley Leung in The Boston Globe. For a palace intrigue complete with an aging monarch, scheming courtiers, and jilted lovers, look no further than the legal battle over Sumner Redstone’s $40 billion media and entertainment empire. The ailing 93-year-old still controls 80 percent of CBS and Viacom, despite reportedly being barely able to speak. With no clear succession plan, a bitter struggle has erupted between Redstone’s once estranged daughter, Shari, and the man Redstone has repeatedly described as a surrogate son, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman. In the saga’s latest chapter, Redstone last month booted Dauman and another decades-long ally from the trust that will control his fortune after he dies, replacing them with…3 min
The Week Magazine|June 10, 2016The writer who chronicled China’s upheavalYang Jiang 1911–2016Yang Jiang was nearly 60 and an acclaimed writer in China when she was sent to a reeducation camp as part of the country’s Cultural Revolution. Consigned to rural Henan province, she was denied access to books and forced to do two years of hard labor, while her husband, renowned writer Qian Zhongshu, was sent to a nearby camp. “I worked with every ounce of energy I could muster, gouging at the earth with a spade,” Yang recalled in her bestselling memoir of the time, Six Chapters From My Life ‘Downunder.’ “But the only result was a solitary scratch on the surface.” At the end of her ordeal, she concluded that the government’s attempt to “re-educate” her had been an abject failure. “Not only had I not reached…2 min
