| The End of Great Britain As We Know It |
[11 May 2015|08:13pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/05/the_end_of_great_britain_why_david_cameron_s_conservative_victory_could.html LONDON —This election will be remembered as the one that rescued the career of David Cameron, the British prime minister, who was publicly contemplating his own exit from politics only two months ago. It will also be remembered as the election that abruptly ended the career of the Labor Party leader, Ed Miliband, who had confidently carved his electoral promises onto a large piece of limestone only last week. Above all, it will be remembered as the election that every single major pollster got wrong: All the dire talk of hung parliaments, minority coalitions, and the intervention of the queen has vanished with the emergence of a solid Conservative majority. But long after these various dramas are forgotten, it might also be remembered as the election that marked the beginning of the end of Great Britain, at least in the form that we now know it.
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| How Bill Simmons Changed Sportswriting |
[11 May 2015|10:37pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/05/bill_simmons_getting_booted_by_espn_is_the_best_thing_that_could_happen.html The first time I read Bill Simmons was in the earliest days of his ESPN tenure; I was a displaced Bostonian living in New York City, and it was a thrilling experience, all that incorrigible homerism splashed up against the gaudy yellow backdrop of the late Page 2. I don’t know how else to start an essay about Bill Simmons other than in the first person, since that’s where he lived, or lives; in the wake of news of Simmons’ impending and apparently involuntary departure from ESPN, it’s already hard not to write about him in the past tense. In the 14 years he spent at ESPN, Bill Simmons transformed himself from an out-in-the-weeds curiosity (“The Sports Guy”) to the most influential sportswriter of his generation. Now he can die in peace, as he’s frequently remarked, even though that’s almost certainly the last thing Simmons is currently planning on doing.
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