4 sleeper contenders for the post-Bubble NBA title It was all supposed to be so easy. After last year’s triumphant coronation in the quarantine bubble, the Los Angeles Lakers were primed to take advantage of the ever-stretching window of LeBron James’ prime, and his pairing with fellow superstar Anthony Davis…

Subway Punches, Needle Jabs, Political Lies, and Why It’s OK to Still Feel Unsettled — Someone punched me the other day in the Clark Street subway station. I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember the last time anyone had hit me in anger. The person who hit me, who was sitting on a platform bench and looked like they were going through some sort…

How the HBO Max series wonders what we got wrong about the past Over the past decade, one of the richest questions popular culture has asked itself has been “What did we get wrong about the past?” From Ryan Murphy’s revisionist histories The People v. O.J. Simpson and The Assassination…

Why this New Yorker isn’t joining the Yang Gang — He seems like a nice enough guy, and he added a welcome dose of levity and entrepreneurial vigor to a lengthy slog of a campaign, so it gives me no pleasure to make this observation, but it might just be that Andrew Yang is the Donald Trump of the New…

My 25-year journey with an album I just heard for the first time — We are the beneficiaries of a secular miracle. Right now, beneath our fingertips, we have access to more music than we could ever possibly listen to. And like most miracles, we take it entirely for granted. Of course we can listen to any music we like, anytime we like, at…

An appreciation of how wonderfully, revolutionarily boring Joe Biden has been as president — What’s President Joe Biden’s position on the legal travails of Representative Matt Gaetz? Where does he stand on the removal of some Dr. Seuss books from publication? What public comments did he make about the Japanese golfer who won the Masters last weekend? What does President Joe Biden think about…

On dreaming of being a walker in the city once more. — For as long as I can remember, I have always loved to walk. In part, this might be because I grew up in Los Angeles, where being a pedestrian is a mark of profound suspicion — bro, what happened to your car? — and I enjoy being ornery. Feeling the…

On making the extra pass — I have attempted to do many things with my time over the past year — keep an apartment with two young children at a tolerable level of cleanliness, stay politically involved, earn money — but the primary thing I have actually accomplished during the past twelve months is to watch…

But not for the reasons you expect — Of all the seasons, my least favorite is tax season. Every year, right around when February turns into March, I know it’s about time for me to dig out my receipts, ransack the Finances folder in my email account, and start accounting for how I made and spent my money…