Welcome back to The Span, Defector’s premiere culture newsletter. This week, we’ve got Ben Wurgaft’s searing look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s obsession with meat, Mychal Denzel Smith making a persuasive case for Jay-Z to perform his worst album live, Annie Berke on a new show whose title could describe a whole genre, and a former insider’s account of the gambling industry.
Speaking of! We’ve also got more Middlemarch Madness, which exists for the purposes of fun and erudition, not financial speculation. Whatever you do amongst yourselves is your own business.
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Here are some cool blogs from Defector:
RFK Jr.’s Offal Advice
Kennedy's interest in meat is so larded with symbolism and minimally marbled with facts that it deserves special attention.
I Demand That Jay-Z Perform All Of ‘Kingdom Come’ At His Yankee Stadium Concert
Failure matters, too.
‘Imperfect Women’ Is The Latest Entry In A Fittingly Flawed Genre
The imperfect-woman miniseries is starting to feel a little stale.
Why I Got Out Of The Gambling Business
I learned exactly what kind of customer is most valuable to an online gambling company.
Here are some cool blogs from elsewhere on the internet:
The New Yorker: How To Measure The Good Life
In a new book, the conservative pundit Arthur C. Brooks offers tips to “young strivers” on maximizing their daily meaning quotient.
Middlemarch Madness: Final Four!
The Elite Eight was a testament to good seeding. There were no upsets! Every higher ranked book defeated the measly book beneath it. After an early lead, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn collapsed beneath the weight and might of the titular Middlemarch, which received 60 percent of the vote. The same easy wins were afforded to Persuasion, who beat David Copperfield with 63 percent and to Moby-Dick, who beat The Awakening with 69 percent. Nice! Sperm Whales! The true blow-out came from Frankenstein, who annihilated Vanity Fair by a monstrous margin.
But good seeding cannot decide the Final Four. No, the Final Four has two tight, serious competitions. Middlemarch (1) must face Persuasion (5); and Moby-Dick (2) must battle it out with Frankenstein (3). Only you can decide which of these storied programs can make the final. Vote here!
