Submitted For Your Perusal

1. “He Was Nouveau When It Was New”

“The novel, Mr. Robbe-Grillet contended, was a 19th-century form, epitomized by the rich, naturalistic worlds of Balzac and Flaubert. The 20th century, though, was characterized by fragmentation and existential doubt, and the novel reached ‘a degree of stagnation,’ he argued in his essay ‘A Fresh Start for Fiction.’ He called for a radical departure: anti-realist, anti-naturalist, anti-descriptive, apolitical. ‘In this future universe of the novel, gestures and objects will be “there” before being “something,”’ he wrote. ‘They will still be there afterwards, hard, unalterable, eternally present, mocking their own meaning.’”

2. “Peeking Inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter”

“A new report in The Journal of Adolescence this month suggests that when it comes to sex, girls and dating, boys are more complex than we typically give them credit for. While hormonal urges are no doubt an important part of a teenage boy’s life, they aren’t necessarily the defining trait influencing a boy’s relationships with girls.”

3. “A Growing Cloud Over the Planet”

“Nearly of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers live in China, India, and Indnesia, the three largest consumers of tobacco products.”

4. “The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986-2007”

“Summer blockbusters and holiday hits make up the bulk of box office revenue each year, while contenders for the top Oscar awards tend to attract smaller audiences that build over time. Here’s a look at how movies have fared at the box office, after adjusting for inflation.”

5. “Are Oscars Worth All This Fuss?”

“I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I found myself hoping that the strike would shut the Academy Awards down; that for once, in a year of such cinematic bounty and variety, appreciation for the best movies could be liberated from the pomp and tedium of Hollywood spectacle.”

6. “Oh, Just Lighten Up and Enjoy the Show”

“As juicy a target as the Oscars are — the bacchanal is like the large-chested blonde in the horror movie who always gets mauled first — they continue to occupy an important and irreplaceable role in our culture. In an age in which all is niche, where in most households someone is checking a Facebook wall while someone else is customizing an iPod, the Oscars are where we meet in the glorious, frothy middle. As a people with less in common every day, it is a social good to have an event that is so large, so full of hype that it animates the broader conversation. So what if we are talking about the fashion faux pas or the freak who turned on the waterworks for no apparent reason?”

7. “He Shoots! He Scores! He Makes Movies!”

“‘Once I realized I was going to become a professional basketball player, I started immediately thinking about things I wanted to do when I retired and had a second career,’ said Mr. Davis, 28, who sports a full black beard and has a 40-inch vertical leap. ‘And films are something that I enjoy. I think it brings people together, sends messages, makes people laugh and shares information. And movies are something that as a kid growing up were the one thing that you could always look forward to.’”

8. “Profane Poet”

“In fact, the more you learn of the playwright’s life, the more seriously you have to consider the possibility that Mamet may himself be a Hemingway character. Here is a Nick Adams-ish tough-guy hunter/poet, who was once (and may still be) a member of both the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, with a crew cut and bluejeans that say ‘man’s man’ but accessories that say otherwise. (‘To still wear a beret in 2004,’ said Val Kilmer, ‘you have to have guts.’) It’s easy to imagine Mamet sitting down to work in his Vermont cabin, nudging aside his antique Colt revolver paperweight and chanting the Hemingway dictum: ‘Tell the story, take out the good lines and see if it still works.’”