New Yorker

New Yorker writer David Denby chronicles an effort to get young people reading

Victor S. Navasky’s new book on images that sting worse than words

Jessica Allen on the (slightly repulsive) allure of Harmony Korine’s new film

Book by Ian Frazier

Quebecers aren’t allowed to submit captions for the magazine’s famous cartoons

And how a good mind can turn the game upside down

A tiny Wolfe at the bathroom door, a flirty old Castro in Cuba and the Times’ new editor needs her red pen

Plus, the birth of forensic science, Portia de Rossi’s eating disorders and a New Yorker writer’s new novel

Slapshot, the New York Times’ hockey blog, considers Michael Ignatieff’s hockey watching, as revealed in Adam Gopnik’s profile for the New Yorker.

A new book says ‘free’ is the future. Critics say that’s just crazy.

Must-reads: Graham Thomson in Afghanistan; George Jonas on the Order of Canada.

Let’s face it: Barack Obama has to be the most exotic candidate running for the presidency in recent memory. He describes himself as the kid with the funny name who could only hope to be president in a country like America. When we examine his biography, you see that this biracial, Hawaiian born, son of a single mother, and former community organizer is not your regular candidate for president. Add to this that his father was a non-practicing Muslim who left him at the age of 2, a mother who was quite possibly agnostic, and the fact that Obama attended Catholic school in Indonesia and, again, he is not your regular candidate for president. We also know that for a period of close to 5 years, Obama was raised by his maternal grandparents, Toot and Gramps. When it comes to the race question, Obama is not your normal pro civil rights leader. In fact, his candidacy has, as is often stated, transcended racial politics. He has been in the U.S. Senate for less than 4 years, and is only 46 years of age, which would make him, along with Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, one of the youngest presidents. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law, coming from a family of modest means, and you have a true American story—potential Hollywood material.