Author: Scott McKenzie

Panama Papers Gonna Make a Good Book

The treasure trove of leaked documents dubbed “The Panama Papers” is going to make for a good book. Especially once American information starts trickling out. Here is an informative NPR interview with Gabriel Zucman, author of The Hidden Wealth of Nations who states that “there’s about 8 percent of the world’s financial wealth that is…

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Would You Sell a Letter?

The news of a completed auction for a 1990 Harper Lee letter about Donald Trump made me contemplate the whole notion of selling correspondence. Maybe after decades have passed, maybe after I die and heirs and Sackville-Baggins type looters pick through the Slushpile library, then possibly some pieces of correspondence might hit the market. But…

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Editor’s Fault ‘Cub Reporter’ Invented Quotes

In the seemingly ever-growing list of journalists accused of plagiarism and fabrication, this might be one of the ballsiest explanations we’ve ever seen: “I?m a cub reporter and expected a sustained and competent editor to guide me, something which I never had at your company,” purportedly from Juan Thompson. Catch up on the whole shenanigan…

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The Donald Taught Me a New Word

Well, not actually Donald Trump himself. But rather this article, “Has Trump Killed the GOP?” on Politico. In the piece, Jacob Heilbrunn states that “It?s precisely Trump?s lubricity that is allowing him to transcend the GOP?s parochial ideological battles.” And I actually did think, “is that a made up word?” Nope. It’s in the dictionary!…

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Harper Lee Letters to Go Under the Gavel

Fresh off the controversy regarding the impending publication of Harper Lee’s novel Go Set a Watchman comes news that six handwritten letters by the author are being auctioned. According to GMA News, the letters were written between 1956 and 1961. The now-publicity-shy author was corresponding with an architect pal in the Big Apple.

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