 |
1. In the last issue, Gabriel Sherman went inside Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (“Operation Trump,” April 4–17). Mother Jones’s Kevin Drum was particularly struck by Sherman’s report that Sam Nunberg, Trump’s former adviser, had done a “deep dive into talk radio,” which showed that having a strong stance on anti-immigration would be highly effective with a “certain segment of the Republican base.” “This sure makes it sound like his thunderous anti-immigrant position is a wee bit less than heartfelt,” he wrote. “Maybe even cynically contrived.” To Sherman’s assertion that “people who know Trump say they’ve never seen him so tired,” Arianna Huffington responded: “Supporting evidence comes from modern science, as sleep deprivation symptoms include lack of judgment, inability to process basic information, irritability, mood swings, and a paranoid tendency to spout conspiracy theories. Sound familiar? Trump’s biggest contribution to the discourse might be a cautionary tale about exhaustion and the resulting consequences of lack of impulse control.” Many just appreciated the peek inside the Trump camp — “I had resolved to give Trump no more of my tweet/brain-space, but this is a really excellent piece,” tweeted Marc Andreessen. “Wow,” tweeted Politico’s Hadas Gold. “Total reevaluation of NY Observer Trump coverage prompted by Gabriel Sherman’s report that the Observer editor helped Trump on aipac speech.” “The second paragraph in this NYMag story on Trump’s team is truly remarkable and all it does is describe the team,” wrote Vice’s Danny Gold. “Alarming, yet oddly cheering,” commented Arundel. “Because the emperor has no clothes.”
2. Lisa Miller’s story on the BMX rider Dave Mirra, who committed suicide after retiring from the sport, spoke to the particular challenges extreme athletes face (“Losing the Will to Die Just Before Choosing Death,” April 4–17). PatrickR wrote, “This was a beautiful and thoughtful article about a man who was taken too soon. I was struck by the parallels between Mirra’s life and the lives of other extreme athletes I’ve followed over the years: the late Dan Osman and Dean Potter, for example.” (Both were extreme-sports athletes who died jumping off cliffs in Yosemite — Osman in 1998 doing a “controlled free-fall”; Potter last year while base jumping.) “In many such people, there seems to be a hidden stratum of depression that is kept in check only by facing repeated life-or-death challenges that push all troubles off to the side and out of mind, at least for a while. When one challenge is mastered and the adrenaline rush is no longer sufficiently intense, the ante must be upped. Dean Potter himself described his obsessive pursuit of danger as ‘nearly insane.’ Perhaps the challenge for many extreme athletes as they grow older is how to find peace at last without the peril.” LvV agreed, writing, “I don’t think most people see ‘extreme’ athletes as having sensitive artistic-type spirits, but many of them do, and I wonder if their outer cool/toughness keeps people (other than those closest to the athletes) from fully recognizing their suffering until it is too late.” “Artists who express themselves through the physical face limits that musicians or graphic artists (who can perform at a high level until they’re 90) don’t have,” wrote back PatrickR. One commenter, Cawmniss, saw another possible explanation: “We’re probably going to hear about a lot of extreme athletes having CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] — just like with football.”
 |
3. “In this tech boom,” wrote Amy Larocca in her story on Etsy, “Wall Street has tended to really like the sound of entrepreneurs hawking not just a new business but a new kind of business” (“Etsy Wants to Crochet Its Cake and Eat It Too,” April 4–17). Etsy sellers weighed in on what that new kind of business looks like: “I have a store on Etsy selling T-shirts that I ACTUALLY design and print myself,” wrote CameronS. “The problem is, there are a million people selling cheap, horrible, ugly mass produced and printed T-shirts … Sellers mark things as ‘handmade’ and ‘vintage’ that obviously are neither. [But] there are two reasons I use Etsy instead of a stand-alone store. The listing fees are way smaller than … on sites like Shopify. [And] being a marketplace, it’s conceivable that people could find me there that wouldn’t know about me otherwise.” “I’ve had an Etsy shop since 2006,” added Brianinsanfran. “It was doing okay for years. Now, if you have time to look through all the cheap factory-made stuff from Thailand and Hungary you might find one of my handbags or pillows.” Commenter LittleBat set the record straight on the issue of “non-toxic underpants,” which Larocca had questioned: “There are absolutely toxic dyes and synthetic fibers and elastic in most underwear.” Many readers just wanted to know where to send résumés: “They offer reasonable salary and benefits, free lunches, free classes, encourage employees to bike to work,” wrote Thwarted. “STUPID HIPSTERS. Seriously — are they hiring?”�