Why has sports betting been deemed an especially toxic form of gambling? In this video, James Surowiecki looks at why we have laws that ban sports betting in most of the U.S., and explains why he sees those bans as illogical and irrational: http://nyr.kr/ZokjFT

(Source: newyorker.com)

Cartoon by J. C. Duffy. For more: http://nyr.kr/VmBF2L

Is Chris Christie a viable Presidential candidate for the G.O.P.? John Cassidy looks at the issues he would need to resolve before 2016: http://nyr.kr/SrRMfx

Photograph by Ida Mae Astute/ABC/Getty.

Rebecca Mead on the continuing effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey. 

Photograph by Peter Van Agtmael/Magnum.

Watch Bruce Springsteen performing “Prove It All Night” with its famous opening guitar solo in the video above, and then click-through to see more videos from 1978, the golden age of The Boss: http://nyr.kr/OTWVs4

Springsteen wants his audience to leave the arena, as he commands them, with “your back hurting, your voice sore, and your sexual organs stimulated.”

In this week’s issue, David Remnick profiles Bruce Springsteen as he embarks on his new world tour.  Remnick talks to Springsteen’s band mates, wife, manager, and others about the musician’s early years, his evolution as an artist, the depression that he struggled with: http://nyr.kr/O1XqzZ

Cartoon of the night. Don’t forget to enter this week’s caption contest: http://nyr.kr/r46had

(Source: newyorker.com)

In celebration of the New York Giants’ parade today, this 1994 Ed Fisher cartoon.

The Story of a Suicide

He talked about Tyler’s senior year in high school. “I would characterize him as a child growing up,” he said. “He was getting more into being fashion-conscious. Now, this kid, he had to dress for orchestra—since he was seven, he was wearing suits and ties. But he was getting more trendy, in the last year or so.” Jane Clementi recalled that, not long before his death, Tyler had bought a spectacular new pair of glasses—bright green on the inside of the stems. His father said, “He was definitely trying to express himself.”

They never saw any sign of depression, and can’t even see it retrospectively. “As a parent, what it says to me is that what you think you know, you don’t know,” Joseph Clementi said. “And that’s a hard thing, because we all think, I know what my kid’s up to. You don’t.”

On the night Jane Clementi learned that Tyler was gay, she said, “I told him not to hurt himself.” Not long before, a girl from his school had committed suicide. “We had talked about it briefly that summer, and for some reason that thought came to mind. And all I said was ‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ and he looked me right in the eye and he laughed, and said, ‘I would never do anything like that.’ ”

- In this week’s issue, Ian Parker gives the first in-depth assessment of the Tyler Clementi case, told through a series of exclusive interviews & IM conversations: http://nyr.kr/AeSgrV

(Source: newyorker.com)