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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
1. The story of the one-eyed matador
Karen Russell on Juan Jose Padilla’s return to the ring after suffering a terrible goring. (GQ)
In his hospital room, he begins to rehearse bullfighting moves with the sheets. Less than two weeks after the accident, he gives a press conference in a wheelchair with his face uncovered. ”I have no rancour toward this bull or toward my profession,” he slurs into the mike. He makes the following pledge: “I will return to dress as a torero.”
Tom Carver on the British double agent Kim Philby’s life in Beirut, soaked in drink and keeping a pet fox. (LRB)
MI6 were keeping the flat on rue Kantari under constant surveillance. Perhaps someone remarkably incompetent was monitoring his movements; perhaps something else was going on. In any case, it seems that no one tailed Philby when he appeared on the street around four in the afternoon. A torrential rainstorm had just begun.
3. My baby and the beauty pageant
Tracie Egan Morrissey recounts the time she entered her toddler daughter in a pageant, and what she became. (Jezebel)
I seriously considered getting a baby wig, but my daughter was born with a full head of hair and received two professional haircuts before her first birthday. Her natural hair would be so impressive for her age division that it would give her an edge, I just knew it.
4. An interview with the Washington sniper
Josh White speaks to Lee Boyd Malvo, half of the duo who killed ten people over three weeks in 2002. (Washington Post)
Mostly he remembers Ted Franklin’s eyes — the devastation, the shock, the sadness. “They are penetrating,” Malvo said in a rare media interview from prison. “It is the worst sort of pain I have ever seen in my life. His eyes. . . . Words do not possess the depth in which to fully convey that emotion.
John Seabrook on the Korean cultural phenomenon that brought us Gangnam Style, and what goes on behind it. (New Yorker)
“You think you love them, but then you see Tiffany point directly at you and wink, and everything else that exists in the world just disappears,” Toth wrote on Soshified, a Girls’ fan site. “You think you love them, but then you see Sooyoung look you dead in the eye”
6. Preparing for a presidential debate
Robert Draper on how a single roll of the eyes or botched response can change the course of a debate – and what candidates do to avoid them. (GQ)
“For all of their ego and confidence, it’s a huge amount of pressure,” one Republican veteran of the debate trade told me. With a forlorn chuckle, he added, “The only thing that’s worse is to be someone like me who spends months and months working with these guys—and then they go onstage, and you’re absolutely helpless.”
… AND A CLASSIC READ FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 2007, successful couple Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake took their own lives within a week of each other. Nancy Jo Sales wrote about it for Vanity Fair in January 2008.
“I am going to join the lovely Theresa,” Blake, 35, had written on the back of a business card, which he left on the beach, along with his clothes. Police helicopters searched for him for days on the chance he might still be alive.
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Fair play to Glen and all involved. Lovely tradition for a great cause! Merry Christmas
@Brian Dunne:
Looks like great craic. Would love to get to it sometime. Especially when ya don’t know who’s gonna show.
Virtue signalling at its worst.
@Kevin Gorman: zzzzzzzzz
@Ebeneezer Goode: Oh dear. It’s Christmas. Be nice.
@Chin Feeyin: An important characteristic of virtue signalling is that there is no cost associated with the act; simple public vocalisation in support of a cause has no cost to the signaller. That’s all.
@Kevin Gorman: no cost? Yeah, I’m sure there’s no cost at all involved in this event. You’re leaving out that many people pay these acts to do this in other settings all year round. By not being paid there is a cost. Anybody doing their job for free is incurring a cost.
@Kevin Gorman: have a day off lad
@Kevin Gorman: Exactly what you are doing here. Numb nuts.
Virtue signalling.
@Kevin Gorman: Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
@Ebeneezer Goode: more damned when they do
Nobody “deserves” a home, you “deserve” what you work hard for and earn.
@Sirius: Jesus and his parents didn’t deserve a home, so the Bethlehem Village Council quite rightly didn’t do anything to shelter them.
@Sirius: tell that to homeless children.. I’m Jewish but isn’t there something in the NT a bout no room at the Inn.. Correct me if I’m wrong!
@Sirius: tell that to all the kids that are homeless ya tit
@Sirius: As I already said and it’s been removed. You are a massive bell end. Everyone deserves a home/roof over their heads no matter how much money they have/ make. I hope to god you are never out on your arse at this time of year, God forgive you for such a nasty comment.
@olivia smith: yawn. Your a simpleton
@Victor Feldman: Now you go and ruin the whole rant. How unkind of you.
What’s with all these homeless charities having huge cash piles. If the homeless crisis was solved then all these charities would go out of biz. Wouldn’t want that now would they, so let’s hold of the spend and keep them mean.
@J: under this government the homeless crises went from 1,000 to 11,000 and you want to blame charities? If we had a good government who built houses then we wouldn’t need charities anyway, that should be all of our goals
@Kev: you’ve fudged your numbers a bit there but the idea is spot on
…Revelate. Nice one.
I can’t imagine a worse fate than being homeless at Christmas. Unless it’s being homeless at Christmas and having to listen to Glen Hansard and Imelda May. May God have mercy on every soul in attendance
Sounds terrible.. It not music..
Not as good without bono
@Eugene Kelly: Hansard such a pain even bono won’t go near him. Now THATS virtue signalling!
@Eugene Kelly: his so called philanthropy passing an old bucket around. The Irish rich just don’t do philanthropy except as a tax dodge.
Good initiative but only few people can access and for people a bit further down the street you cant hear a thing. So we left after 5 minutes. Maybe they should do something a bit more organised at some stage so people can enjoy this and give to the cause.
@Georges Dessaint: this sorr of thing is just window dressing for the u2 warbler.. Its his idea of being what he terms a philanthropist.. Its a cheap joke.
@Victor Feldman: pretty sure it’s Hansard’s baby
Would be nice to see happen D1 area sometime
@Mr Grumble: more cash to be made from the wealthy clase by picking the most overpriced street in Ireland
@Kev: agreed… but might attract well heeled to absorb wonderful culture and class mix.
I was surprised how many wouldnt donate to the cause yet were happy to watch a free gig . I witnessed 3 foreigners give out to the guy with the bucket shouting at him to get out of their way shouting in their own language. The guy handled it well. Thanks ladies for your spirit and donations great to see thank you. Shame on them
have your say