A Real Bind for Romney, New School Journalism, and Bringing Up the Booker

Last night President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney went head to head in a second town hall debate. Here's a play by play. There was a point where Romney described the “binders of women” that he had allegedly asked for, realizing back in the day that he, in his various positions of power, wasn't toeing the gender parity line. And so a meme is born.

Oh look, a handy segue. Adrian Chen, of Gawker and The New Inquiry had an amazing and conflictual piece last week, which profiled one of the moderators of one of reddit's unsavory public boards that feature sexualized images of women, taken without their permission, aka “Creepshots.” The piece is great in all of its bold newness—it's a fascinating exploration of a web only subculture, Chen allows his subjective ethical concerns to show through without undermining his journalistic skills—and it's a riveting story told really, really well. And it's still unfolding.

Hillary Mantel is the first woman to be a two-time winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her historical novel Bring Up the Bodies, which has been excerpted in both Telegraph and the New York Review of Books. Mantel was also profiled recently in the New Yorker.