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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Some men are paying thousands to have their legs surgically broken and lengthened so that they can be taller. Ruth Michaelson follows one man’s experience. (If you’re squeamish, be warned – there are some photos of the surgery included)
(The Guardian, approx 10 mins reading time)
Frank can reel off a list of negative experiences stretching back into adolescence that he believes stemmed from his height. There was the pain of his friends suddenly becoming taller than him after he stopped growing around the age of 15. There were the kids at school who taunted him for his height; a longtime online fan of his artwork who remarked, on meeting him, that Frank was “shorter than I expected”; or the guys who randomly shoved him in the street a few years ago, tearing out his headphones. They wouldn’t have done that to a taller man, he reasons. In Frank’s view, tall people don’t realise their privilege. “It’s hard to explain if you’re not a short man yourself, but in modern society it’s almost a curse,” he says, as he carefully keeps watch over his pain medication and blood thinners.
A joint investigation found that Israel’s own classified military intelligence data shows that 83% of the Palestinians that have been killed in Gaza were civilians.
(+972 Magazine, approx 13 mins reading time)
Maj. Gen. (res.) Itzhak Brik, who served for many years as a commander in the Israeli army and later as Ombudsman for Soldiers’ Complaints, explained how this outlook fueled a culture of lying. “They created a measure [whereby] the more you killed, the more you succeeded, and as a result they lied about how many they killed,” he said, describing the numbers presented by the IDF Spokesperson as “one of the most serious bluffs” in Israel’s history. “They lie non-stop — both the military echelon and the political echelon,” Brik added. “In every raid, the IDF Spokesperson’s announcements said: ‘Hundreds of terrorists were killed,’” he continued. “It’s true that hundreds were killed, but they weren’t terrorists. There is absolutely no connection between the numbers they announce and what is actually happening.” While speaking to soldiers whose job was to examine and identify the bodies of people the army kills in Gaza, he said they told him: “Everyone the army says it killed, most of them are [civilians]. Period.”
Apparently it’s getting harder and harder to get loads of people to turn up to try and break Guinness World Records – but some people still do, and have great fun doing it. Lauren Larson spoke to some of them.
(The New York Times Magazine, approx 14 mins reading time)
Each record has its own set of rules, some of them minute. The records that seem the most easily quantifiable can be the most fraught. The tallest and shortest man and woman, for instance, must be measured by a medical professional at six different times in a 24-hour period, because humans shrink throughout the day as a result of spinal compression. Consider the regulations for most dice stacked in one minute (there’s also a record for how many dice a person can stack in 30 seconds and a record for most dice stacked on a cat’s paw): “You have to start with both hands flat on the table,” said Mark McKinley, director of central record services at Guinness. “You can only start on a ‘go.’ You can only touch one dice at a time. The dice have to be this size. They have to be free-standing, and if any fall you cannot return to them.”
“There is a natural theatricality to what seems to be an over-officious organizational setup,” said Craig Glenday, editor in chief of the Guinness World Records book. “We become bogged down in rules because, otherwise, what’s the point in doing it at all?”
In this fascinating read, Jennifer Wilson writes about the secrets that DNA tests can uncover, and what happens when the truth comes out.
(The New Yorker, approx 26 mins reading time)
In 1999, the producers of “Maury” came to their host, Maury Povich, with an idea to boost ratings. “These soap operas—they take six months to reveal someone’s secret father,” Povich remembered them saying. “We can do that in fifteen minutes, on air.” The show became known for its flamboyant paternity-test reveals, and for men, suddenly off the hook for child support, doing celebratory dances. Povich told me, “People come up to me all the time on the street. They like to grab their pregnant wife and get me to say, ‘You are the father.’ ” His show was controversial; scholars have accused it of reinforcing stereotypes about Black women’s promiscuity, but nonetheless it became a cultural touchstone. In a 2015 “Saturday Night Live” “Weekend Update” segment about Black History Month, Michael Che joked about Povich: “He set more Black men free than Abraham Lincoln.” Povich’s show was also an unlikely educational resource. In the nineties, DNA was the stuff of science fiction—I first heard about it in “Jurassic Park”—but here it was something real, with real-life consequences.
A new book chronicles the budding rivalry between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, two young champions whose intense battles on the court have ushered in a new and exciting era in the men’s game.
(The New Yorker, approx 11 mins reading time)
Alcaraz careens around the court with an anarchic physicality, disappearing from the camera’s view as he chases after balls others would regard as lost causes, an overeager puppy. In contrast, Sinner plays with control and calm; it’s like an optical illusion, his ability to conjure so much power from his skinny frame. He bashes the ball with a ferocity that has to be heard to be fully appreciated; Nathan compares the sound of Sinner’s shots to “a firearm, a vehicle backfiring” and “a hydraulic press.” Where Alcaraz exudes a casual rawness, Sinner expresses himself more deliberately, as someone who has mastered the physics of his own body over time. “That such a lanky boy could produce such alarming noises is a testament to how power works in tennis,” Nathan writes. The Italian’s rise was more gradual than Alcaraz’s; he often went deep in tournaments, steadily rising in the rankings, before finally breaking through, to win the Australian Open, in 2024.
People with mental health conditions are increasingly turning to ‘AI therapists’ for support. This is a heartbreaking but important piece from a mother whose daughter took her own life after speaking to one of these chatbots.
(The New York Times, approx 8 mins reading time)
In clinical settings, suicidal ideation like Sophie’s typically interrupts a therapy session, triggering a checklist and a safety plan. Harry suggested that Sophie have one. But could A.I. be programmed to force a user to complete a mandatory safety plan before proceeding with any further advice or “therapy”? Working with experts in suicidology, A.I. companies might find ways to better connect users to the right resources. If Harry had been a flesh-and-blood therapist rather than a chatbot, he might have encouraged inpatient treatment or had Sophie involuntarily committed until she was in a safe place. We can’t know if that would have saved her. Perhaps fearing those possibilities, Sophie held her darkest thoughts back from her actual therapist. Talking to a robot — always available, never judgy — had fewer consequences. A properly trained therapist, hearing some of Sophie’s self-defeating or illogical thoughts, would have delved deeper or pushed back against flawed thinking. Harry did not.
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As the presidential election begins to get interesting, do you remember the bizarre 2011 race for the Áras? Take a look back.
(The Journal, approx 7 mins reading time)
Before we’d settled on the final seven (!) candidates, there was much speculation over who would throw their hat in the ring. He hadn’t even said he was going to run, but broadcasting legend Gay Byrne was heavily rumoured to be plotting a bid and a Red C poll in August 2011 had him as favourite among the electorate to become the next president. Such a bid never materialised, but he wasn’t the only television celebrity being talked about as a potential president. Such was the swell of rumour that Eamon Dunphy felt the need to rule himself out of the running, declaring to Dave Fanning on 2FM that he’d rather spend the next seven years in Mountjoy than in the Áras. One figure from the telly who did put themselves forward was Sean Gallagher, the businessman who appeared on the show Dragons’ Den. He easily won the support of the required four councils, and he was joined as an independent by Dana Rosemary Scallon, who had won the Eurovision for Ireland, Senator David Norris and Mary Davis.
Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.
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