Submitted For Your Perusal

1. “At Cineplexes, Sports, Opera, Maybe a Movie”

“From nickelodeons to drive-ins to multiplexes, American movie theaters have always evolved with the times. But the latest evolution, set off by stagnating attendance and advances in digital technology, marks the first time that movie theaters have reinvented themselves without motion pictures as the centerpiece.”

2. “Even at Megastores, Hagglers Find No Price Is Set in Stone”

“Michael Roskell, 33, a technology project manager from Jersey City, N.J., said he and a friend from high school periodically visit electronics stores. While Mr. Roskell expresses interest in buying an item, his friend acts as though he is dissatisfied with the price and threatens to leave. ‘We play good cop, bad cop,’ Mr. Roskell said.

“In February, he said, the friends got $20 off a pair of $250 speakers at 6th Avenue Electronics in the New York area. Earlier, he and the same friend negotiated to buy two 46-inch high-definition Sony televisions at P. C. Richard & Son, a New York-area electronics chain. List price: $4,300. Price after negotiation: $3,305.50.”

3. “Basketball Reigns in the Northwest”

“‘Washington State is a basketball hotbed, no question,’ said Jim Marsh, a former N.B.A. player and current Amateur Athletic Union coach. ‘Just look at the N.B.A. Just look at the college tournament. How many kids are from the 206?’”

4. “Fear of Not, Er, Flying”

“A friend just back from a bachelor party in Las Vegas told me that at the beginning of the weekend, the group of 10 revelers took a survey inspired by current events: four of them had paid for sex. By the end of the weekend, he said, the number had risen to six. Eliot Spitzer: role model.”

5. “A Sage for Our Time”

“Political incorrectness can have its place. Margaret Seltzer, the author of Love and Consequences, a memoir about growing up a gang member in South Central Los Angeles, was exposed earlier this month as a fraud.
Nobody gave her a grilling like [Larry] David would have if he had introduced himself at her book party. After chatting her up, and joking that she didn’t look like a gang member, he would probably lean in, grin on his face, and ask: ‘Really? You were a gang member?’ And never let it go.”

6. “Phenom Director Goes to War”

“Then when her brother returned home on leave, he brought reams of video made by soldiers, often with cameras mounted on guns or Humvees, shot mostly for posting online. Some were romantic homages to patriotism backed by Toby Keith songs, others pure gore, with bodies piling up and heads splitting open, set to rap and heavy metal.

“‘I have to admit I would get adrenalized watching,’ said Ms. Peirce. ‘We’ve never gotten this close to the soldier experience before. We’re literally seeing it, feeling, hearing it, and they’re cutting it, so they’re seeing their fantasy of themselves. I just knew a movie had to be born from that kind of representation.’”

7. “The Wisdom of the Ages, for Now Anyway”

“Mr. Tolle, 60, is the German-born spiritual speaker and author of The Power of Now. With a seemingly limitless pool of middle-class discontent to tap into — and a major push from Ms. Winfrey — he has become the most popular spiritual author in the nation.”

8. “Why Old Technologies Are Still Kicking”

“The mainframe stands as a telling case in the larger story of survivor technologies and markets. The demise of the old technology is confidently predicted, and indeed it may lose ground to the insurgent, as mainframes did to the personal computer. But the old technology or business often finds a sustainable, profitable life. Television, for example, was supposed to kill radio, and movies, for that matter. Cars, trucks and planes spelled the death of railways. A current death-knell forecast is that the Web will kill print media.

“What are the common traits of survivor technologies? First, it seems, there is a core technology requirement: there must be some enduring advantage in the old technology that is not entirely supplanted by the new. But beyond that, it is the business decisions that matter most: investing to retool the traditional technology, adopting a new business model and nurturing a support network of loyal customers, industry partners and skilled workers.”

9. “‘The Ten-Cent Plague,’ by David Hajdu: Penny Dreadfuls”

“The comics’ impact on American life is an inexhaustibly fascinating topic — which is probably why it has nearly been exhausted as a topic. Hajdu, the author of the well-received Positively 4th Street is but partly successful at making it fresh again.”

10. “God’s Workout”

“CrossFit has 450 chapters in 43 states (and several other countries). The network has a message for the merely healthy: ‘Your workout is our warm-up.’ Every day, its members consult CrossFit.com like a Book of Common Prayer, receiving instructions for their workout rites and periods of rest. Performing caveman feats like hauling, clambering, trudging, snatching, hurling and deadlifting, CrossFitters deliberately overwhelm and distress their bodies, executing near-impossible stunts with as much weight as they can bear. A Workout of the Day, or W.O.D., might include 50 kettlebell swings, 3 800-yard dashes in rapid succession and 10 pull-ups. Then repeat. No breaks. No weight machines. All you need is a body built for discipline and a mind that can justify so much apparent self-abuse.”