Slate Articles

Why Are Guys Afraid to Wear Speedos?

Simon Doonan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:27:28 GMT

Summer is here, and again I am seething with frustration. Why? Every year I scan the beaches for men in Speedos and every year I am disappointed. The ridiculous board-shorts trend shows no sign of waning. I had high hopes for change after last year’s Olympics, when the entire nation was gripped by the spectacle of those jackknifing water sprites in their micro-briefs. (Those preposterously teensy swim skivvies worn by Tom Daley et al could only be explained by some kind of harsh polyester-rationing scheme: “Sorry, boys, but only 1 square inch of fabric per customer. Don’t worry. It is quite stretchy.”) I just assumed that, come this summer, one might see an increased willingness on the part of the U.S. male to embrace a little European savoir-faire. But, yet again, all I see are men in billowing shorts.

Superman Needs More Time

David L. Kirp — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:07:17 GMT

What does the recent mass firing of National Basketball Association coaches have to do with the rapid turnover of school chiefs? Each illustrates our craving for instant gratification—and each comes at a high cost.

Why Did Ralph Ellison Never Publish His Second Novel?

Paul Devlin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:41:40 GMT

One of the great mysteries of 20^th-century literary history is why Ralph Ellison never completed the highly anticipated second novel that he worked on for four decades after Invisible Man was published to wide acclaim in 1952. A portion of this unfinished work was published posthumously, in 1999, as Juneteenth, and in 2010, a much larger collection of drafts was published as Three Days Before the Shooting …, a thousand large pages of small type that contain some of Ellison’s best writing, occasionally rivaling Invisible Man in terms of dramatic tension, emotional intensity, and surrealist comedy. The core of this captivating, if wildly uneven behemoth is the story of an African-American minister, Alonzo Hickman, who adopts a white child named Bliss. Under Hickman’s tutelage, Bliss becomes a child preacher in a black church. He eventually abandons the church, holds a series of jobs, fathers a child with a black woman, and finally emerges by the 1950s as Adam Sunraider, an eloquent, charismatic, race-baiting senator from New England, who employs rhetorical techniques learned in the southern black church.

Dear Prudence: Errant Dildo

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:09:00 GMT

In this week's video, Prudie counsels a woman after her fiancé mistakenly shipped a very specific sex toy to his parents.

The Audio Book Club on Tenth of December

Dan Kois — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:01:00 GMT

To listen to the Audio Book Club discussion of Tenth of December, click the arrow on the player below.

The Culture Gabfest “Hurry Up With My Damn Croissants” Edition

Stephen Metcalf — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:49:34 GMT

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 248 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas with the audio player below.

My Kind of Town, Stink Onions

Chris Kirk — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:30:00 GMT

It’s easy to think of words such as California or Texas or New York as just the places on the map, but those words actually meant something, once, and those meanings offer a little glimpse into history. The above map, designed by cartographers Stephan Hormes and Silke Peust, labels states, cities, and landmarks with the literal meanings of their official names.

They Deactivate Droids, Don’t They?

Erik Sofge — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:00 GMT

The war crime plays out like so.

The Pain Threshold

William Saletan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:46:00 GMT

You can also listen to William Saletan read this piece.

Skyjacker of the Day

Brendan I. Koerner — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:20:00 GMT

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States suffered through a skyjacking epidemic that has now been largely forgotten. In his new book, The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking, Brendan I. Koerner tells the story of the chaotic age when jets were routinely commandeered by the desperate and disillusioned. In the run-up to his book’s publication on June 18, Koerner has been writing a daily series of skyjacker profiles. Slate is running the final dozen of these “Skyjacker of the Day” entries.