Afflictor: Thinking that because of a racist Swiss store clerk, Oprah will have to keep using her old purse.
- Old Print Articles: Thomas Edison believes that humans are driven by biological machinery, not souls (1910) + Hatchet-wielding Abolitionist Carrie Nation dies (1911).
- Featured Videos: Woody Allen likes his actors to ad-lib (1965) + Muhammad Ali and Freddie Blassie form a tag team on the Tonight Show (1976) + Henry Miller holds forth, as he was wont to do (1974) Thomas Hoving profiles David Bowie (1980) + Pierre Salinger profiles Debbie Harry (1980) + British TV series Space Patrol had its own Hyperloop (1962).
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: I’m not a senior citizen yet, baby + I might want to give you a blow job + I’m a personal trainer, or maybe just really insulting.
- The Hyperloop is designed to disrupt the planned California bullet train.
- Tad Friend points out three problems with the Hyperloop.
- Hollywood is obsessed with a pencil that went out of production in 1998.
- David L. Ulin writes about the first Charles Manson biography.
- Sun-soaked and outdoorsy though it is, L.A. has long loved technology.
- Moral philosopher Peter Singer explains that not all charity is equal.
- Zander Hollander was a sports stats guru in the pre-Internet age.
- Spike Lee, reinterpreting Oldboy, did an Ask Me Anything.
- Isha Datar, cultured-meat researcher, did an Ask Me Anything.
- New Republic Russian correspondent Julia Ioffe did an Ask Me Anything.
- DNA tests have never been foolproof.
- Comedian Tig Notaro wasn’t planning on cancer or being a sensation.
- Advanced defensive shifting has aided the Pirates’ surprising season.
- Baseball slugger Jose Abreu defected from Cuba.
- Google is working in earnest on screenless computing.
- President Obama returned the solar panels to the White House.
- A brief note from 1876 about a meat shower.
- A brief note from 1901 about a baby’s touch.
- A brief note from 1891 about a novel surgery.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.