Recommended Reading: A Random Assortment

This roundup is pretty representative of the things on my mind this week, besides Hurricane Sandy, that is. The storm largely spared us here in Washington but I’ve been glued to the TV and the internet, captivated by the stunning images of Manhattan in the dark, a changed coastline in New Jersey and the stories of survival and togetherness in the storm’s aftermath.

Of course, there’s still a presidential election in a few days, and I’ve been fascinated by the rather silly backlash against prognosticator Nate Silver, a data nerd and former baseball statistician who turned his talents to analyzing political polling. There’s a nice take on the backlash, below.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on my offspring‘s sleep habits. She is already quite amazing at sleeping during overnight hours, having fallen into a routine in which she gets up twice at night for feedings at the exact same times. This is the kind of predictability that her momma (a nine-hour-a-night sleeper) really needs. But it wasn’t until this week that I got serious about reading sleep expert Dr. Marc Weissbluth’s method, which focuses on naps just as much as night sleep.

And this week, my friend Drew finally got his Lance Armstrong-is-not-a-nice-guy story published. He had reported and written it three years ago but the magazine that originally paid him to do it decided it was too mean back then. Looking back on it now, had they run it in 2008, the piece would have been remarkably prescient. Happy reading.

The Secrets of Sleep – “If naps are always hit-or-miss, your baby or young child will become chronically overtired, making it harder for him to go to sleep at night and sleep well once down. Weissbluth’s mantra: Sleep begets sleep.” Chicago Magazine

Show Us Your Model – “Of course, if you say there’s a 41 percent chance of something happening and then it happens, you wouldn’t actually be discredited, because 41 is not zero. “ The American Prospect

The Armstrong Cycle: From Boom to Bust – “Armstrong was not just the worst kind of Austinite, but the ultimate caricature of the privileged Texan—a nouveau-riche plutocrat who thinks his money, athletic achievement and charitable work give him license to treat the town like his personal SimCity, a milieu to be adapted to his tastes and not vice versa.” The Classical

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