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.
Adrian Cardenas was a successful major league baseball player – so why did he quit? He explains why, at the age of 24, in good health and with a great chance of doing well in the sport, he left.
(New Yorker – approx 7 minutes reading time, 1572 words)
I stepped up to the plate with the mixed serum of emotions that every first-timer feels: happy that I had arrived at a place so hard to reach; astounded that I was now playing with the players I had idolized; and determined to keep getting better so that I could take their jobs. I was proud to be standing at the plate in front of so many people; the adrenaline alone made me feel weightless.
Paul Kirby writes about Siert Burins, a former SS member who is now aged 92 – and stands accused of murdering a member of the Dutch resistance nearly 70 years ago. Kirby visits the area where the killing took place, and finds out more about the people of the resistance.
(BBC – approx 14 minutes reading time, 2821 words)
The danger to the ringleaders of the resistance, and the fugitives they sheltered, came principally from the German Sicherheitsdienst – the Nazi intelligence agency, or SD – in the nearby town of Delfzijl. It had set itself the goal of destroying two active resistance groups spread out across the villages, towns and sweeping farmland of the north-eastern Netherlands.
William Langewiesche meets three men who work beneath New York’s streets: A subway worker, an engineer in charge of three huge projects, and an underground explorer. They talk about what they love about life beneath the streets – a place that most of us will never get to visit.
(Vanity Fair– approx 43 minutes reading time, 8673 words)
I asked Duncan if he knows what they thought of him when he first showed up, and he said, “They thought I was a curious, geeky kid. But many times, especially in that tunnel, I’d see someone in the distance and he’d see me, and we’d go in opposite directions in fear that the other person was either a cop or a crazy psycho killer. But most people in New York aren’t crazy psycho killers, homeless or not”
Jermichael Finley was an NFL player on the up – until a collision left him with a spinal cord contusion. He writes about how that one play changed his life, and about his path to recovery.
(MMQB – approx 9 minutes reading time, 1887 words)
I actually had feeling in my legs, but I couldn’t feel much else. On the field, the doctors were going through regular procedures, testing me on sense and touch, and asking me a multitude of questions. But because I was a little panicked, I couldn’t breathe, which made it very difficult to answer. I remember one of the doctors telling me to “close my legs,” and I simply could not.
Kevin Donovan gives a rundown of all we know to date about Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, and the allegations that he appears in a video to be smoking a crack pipe. It’s a great opportunity to catch up on this story and the many twists and turns it has taken.
(The Toronto Star– approx 10 minutes reading time, 2191 words)
The friend the mayor has called a “good guy” and “straight shooter” was charged with extortion over an alleged forceful attempt to retrieve the cellphone that recorded the video. Alexander “Sandro” Lisi appears in court Friday. He spent the night in jail after the arresting detectives interviewed him.
Irin Carmon speaks to a young mother who was told the boy she was carrying had a severe brain malformation, and so went to have an abortion. With abortions illegal in Oklahoma, she had to travel outside of the state with her husband and three children. Carmon looks at the legal situation regarding abortion in the US right now.
(MSNBC – approx 11 minutes reading time, 2288 words)
Since the consolidation of Republican control in 2010, the state legislature has passed at least sixteen laws relating to abortion, often with “no” votes in the single digits. It’s no coincidence that two of the cases involving women’s health currently hurtling towards the Supreme Court originated in Oklahoma.
….AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES…
File pic: Shutterstock
In 2002, Kara Platoni wrote about Alan Young, who found himself in court after running up a $13,000 hotel bill while pretending to be a Motown star. Young lived a life of fantasy, trying to pretend he was someone he wasn’t. Here’s what happened when he got caught.
(East Bay Express – approx 37 minutes reading time, 7529 words)
For nearly the last twenty years, Young has wined and dined his way through the Bay Area by posing as a variety of musical celebrities and convincing the starstruck to pick up the tab for lavish meals, designer clothing, luxury cars, booze, limousine rides, and stays in elite hotels.
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