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Issue #24 August 29, 2013 Aug 29, 2013 Aug 29
Issue #9 January 31, 2013 Jan 31, 2013 Jan 31
Issue #1 October 11, 2012 Oct 11, 2012 Oct 11
 
 
 
From Issue #28 October 24, 2013

Editor’s Note

We get knocked down, but we get up again, and your letters.

By The Editor Twitter icon 

Issue 28 Cover: Coit Tower

Quick Notes

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This Week’s Stories

It’s rude to reduce people to a collection of body parts, but that’s precisely what some models want. Those who specialize in showing off hands, feet, legs, lips, and other elements are best known for being unrecognizable as the whole, as Chris Stokel-Walker examines in “Some of Their Parts.”

Medical professionals in hospitals have to keep a brave face around patients and even other staff. In “A Separate Peace,” Saul Hymes, a pediatrician, explains the secret places that help doctors, nurses, and others keep their wits about them when faced with endless days and grief.

Elisabeth Eaves said she had a great story about personal submarines in Malta. How could we say no to that? She brought back a report on the quirky idea of making tiny submarines for personal exploration, and she took her own dive down under in “His Life Aquatic.”

It’s an irrefutable truth that we are all aging. Rich Mogull has always been athletic. He can snap me in two, let me tell you. But as he’s aged, his body has rebelled, and in “Best Used By” he details the ailments and accommodations that have led him to his current level of satisfaction.

As part of the set of programs known as the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration was a way to get people earning money during the Great Depression. Celeste LeCompte finds that the WPA is still all around us, hidden. Read about how a group has set about documenting it in “Works in Progress.”

Cover photo of Coit Tower from the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division by Carol M. Highsmith (reproduction number LC-HS503-3925). In the public domain. Design by Louie Mantia.

Letters

You can tap the Share button in iOS at the top of any article and then tap Write Letter to Editor. Or email us with your thoughts, noting any article to which they apply. We also read comments and questions on Facebook, Twitter, and App.net. (Although we see iTunes reviews, we cannot respond there; please contact us directly with any issues that need a response.)

On “Three Strikes, You Shout

Alex:

“The fifth, the Detroit Tigers, seem content to pursue a strategy in which they spend owner Mike Illitch’s Little Caesars money on fat guys who can hit baseballs great distances.”

The article on Moneyball was going along swimmingly until I hit that parenthetical line quoted above. Excuse me? Have you heard about the Tigers’ back to back near no-nos? Pitching makes a difference. Verlander, Scherzer and Sanchez make a difference.

Baseball is one of those games where a momentum doesn’t change inside games as much as it does between games. And pitching, bad and good, is what swings momentum in baseball. Always pitching.

While I am all for useful data and making smart decisions with it, Moneyball has still not shown me how you pick good pitchers. It talked about offense, and yet time after time we are shown in most sports that consistent, solid defense always beats an efficient, smart offense.

Pitching is an ingenious form of defense unique to baseball really. A pitcher is a quarterback on the defensive side of the line. Cool, huh? Give me a cheap 20-game winner and then you have a winning strategy even Joe Morgan will agree with. Can’t find one? Hmm — I wonder why?

Matthew:

I absolutely loved the article on Moneyball, which is interesting, because I myself am not a fan of baseball.

About a year ago, I ripped a DVD of Moneyball for a friend. I never watched it myself, but I did after reading the article. This article made me want to learn more about baseball. Jason Snell wrote an earlier article on the strategy of baseball and why it’s a more complex game than meets the eye. [“Baseball Misfits,” October 11, 2012. — Editor.]

Baseball is mysterious and fascinating to me. I’d love to see a “baseball for dummies” style article here in The Magazine. Why is Moneyball so important? What do these stats mean? Why was it previously a saying that the Sox would never win a World Series?

Usually I pick and choose the articles to read from each issue. For the anniversary issue, I am committed to reading them all. I’m glad I made that choice.

On “Redshirts in the Coffee Shop

Kurt:

Well done! This article was great in and of itself, but what I truly found fantastic was the great footnotes and links. I easily spent 3 times longer going down those rabbit holes than on the original article. I would not be able to get that in a print magazine! (And likely not an article about cosplay!)

On “He Likes to Move It

Charlie:

I would love to hear more about fitness and technology. I think the interactions between those two worlds is very interesting and it seems there is a lot of experimentation in that area right now.

Love reading your magazine.

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