Portrait of a Possible Pedophile

I hesitate to post more news about priests who, depending on the reader’s point of view, have either done wrong, or are being wronged. But this Kansas City Star profile of Fr. Shawn Ratigan, the elementary-school chaplain charged with possessing child pornography, is so gripping, I had to share it. What’s remarkable is that Ratigan [...]

Lady Gaga’s Boring Baldness

Okay, so Lady Gaga is bald. Last Friday night, she appeared on the Paul O’Grady show with a meticulously shaven dome. Seated at the piano, one of her wigs set before her on stand, she serenaded it with — what else? — “My hair.” I’m disappointed. It’s not that I feel any particular attachment to [...]

Charity, Corapi and the Rule of Two Negroes

In my teens, I was an obsessive reader of Bill James’ Basebal Abstract. Anyone who’s familiar with the book will know that James doesn’t content himself with number-crunching — although he does more of it than any six accountants I know. No, for James, fanboy that he is, no detail relating to the National Pasttime [...]