Slate Articles

Before Midnight

Dana Stevens — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:50:59 GMT

Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy—Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and now Before Midnight—occupies a particular place in the heart of its fans, many of whom share a roughly defined demographic berth with the movie’s stars, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. I know more than one couple who feel that their own romantic destiny is tied in some way to that of Céline and Jesse, the characters Delpy and Hawke have been embodying (both in the flesh and on paper; they’re credited as co-writers on the second two movies, and collaborated without credit on a rewrite of the first) for going on 20 years now. In the first film, they played a French student and an American slacker in their early 20s who fell in love over the course of an all-night train layover in Vienna. In the second, they were the same people meeting up again nine years later in Paris for one rushed, geographically impossible, and ultimately life-changing afternoon.

How Accurate Are AAA’s Travel Forecasts?

Brian Palmer — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:36:58 GMT

The automobile advocacy organization AAA forecasts that 31.2 million people will drive to their Memorial Day destinations this weekend, up 0.25 percent from last year. Media outlets announce the AAA road travel prediction for most holiday weekends. How accurate are they?

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Arrested Development, Season 4

David Haglund — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

In Slate’s Arrested Development TV Club, two fans will IM about each episode of Season 4 once they finish watching it. Today, Brow Beat editor David Haglund and editorial assistant Emma Roller prep for the launch of the new season.

A Red Carpet for Beijing

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Economist Dambisa Moyo snickers when she hears talk that the Chinese are trying to take over Africa. What they want, as she argues forcefully in her latest book Winner Take All, are natural resources, which are in abundant supply around the African continent.

Bob Dylan’s World

Thomas Bollier — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:35:38 GMT

Bob Dylan’s music, it’s often said, happens in a world of its own—where the highway is for gamblers and you’re always 1,000 miles from home. It’s a surreal, ethereal realm, lawless but for chance, allusion, and rhyme.

One Hundred Ways to Ruin Ice Cream

Jennifer Reese — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:32:00 GMT

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer, the season of rising mercury, swimming pool openings, and sweltering family barbeques. Ice cream, the king of all things summer, has seen a re-emergence as a trendy artisanal treat, with boutique stores now publishing cookbooks of recipes for their wacky, wild flavors. Last summer Jennifer Reese reviewed four of these ice cream cookbooks. The original story is below.

Is Kaitlyn Hunt Being Punished Because She Is Gay?

Emily Bazelon — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:15:00 GMT

Kaitlyn Hunt, an 18-year-old Florida student, is getting lots of sympathy after being criminally charged over her sexual relationship with her 14-year-old girlfriend. Hunt and the younger girl were basketball teammates. Hunt’s parents say the girl’s parents went to the police, “because they blamed Kaitlyn for their child's homosexuality,” as CBS put it. Hunt’s family put up a Facebook page called “Free Kate,” with links to T-shirts, bracelets, and a petition. More than 45,000 people have signed it. The Florida ACLU has spoken out on her behalf, saying this is a harmless, consensual relationship.

Play the Slate News Quiz

Ken Jennings — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:55:00 GMT

Welcome back to Slate’s weekly news quiz. I’m your host, 74-time Jeopardy! winner Ken Jennings.

Corrections

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:45:00 GMT

In a May 23 “Weigel” blog post, David Weigel misspelled Thor Halvorssen’s last name.

We Don’t Need Another Hero

David Weigel — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:45:08 GMT

The roll-out of Anthony Weiner’s midlife crisis-cum-mayoral campaign has gone about as well as the candidate could have hoped. He announced it via video, beating the tabloids’ print deadlines, evading eponymous puns for one precious day. When he met the press, he juggled questions about his younger and more vulnerable days without a droplet of flop sweat. “People may decide they want to come forward and say, here’s another email that I got or another photo,” he yawned in a radio interview, repeating a stock line. “I’m certainly not going to do that.”