I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

New and sort of sweet word confusion: student question about “knit-picking.”

Matt Taibbi: If you’re so terrible at managing money that you can honestly lose a billion dollars – especially after swearing up and down to the whole world that you were the right choice to manage the cherished millions and billions of scads of farmers, ranchers, and other investors – you should go to jail just for that, just on general principle.

Dr. Otis Brawley: People in the United States may not live longer than people in Canada, but we sure as hell do a better job taking pictures of them.

( Stardom, with special attention to gender )

Once Upon a Time:
( Spoilers go out to the woods today )

Of possible interest:
Please tell PayPal not to decide for us what to read.

Just found out a friend of mine was once a bone marrow match for a woman with leukemia, but wasn’t allowed to donate because he was gay—and still wouldn’t be in the US. Here’s a petition about the blood donation rules.

Interesting article on the psychological poverty trap: Bad decisions are contextual.

Very smart post on When Libertarians Go To Work, and relatedly if you’re interested in why contracts often don’t matter at all, until they suddenly do, and why that’s an important justification for the liberal state.

( White bread, the history of the A&P, Steve Jobs, randomness, gay first times )

( spoilers have a secret )

Good article on mass incarceration in America.

Fannish freecycle: The Guild, Seasons 1 & 2. Free to good home. Also free if you take the package, the following comics: Mice Templar 1-5, Back to Brooklyn full run, The Cross Bronx full run, and Smallville 1-6.

Thanks for the menorah, meret!

Also, thanks so much to everyone who works on the AO3, including Systems, Tag Wranglers, Support, ADT and the rest of the crew, as well as to the Yuletide mods. For Yuletide, I’m the proud recipient of one of the few extant Tower Prep stories, Any Given Tuesday, which has our heroes trying to figure out one of the more mundane mysteries of Tower Prep.

Then, for Yuletide Madness, I got Thick as Thieves, an Alphas story showing the delicate negotiations between Nina, Cameron and Rachel, and Undercover Alpha, in which Gary from Alphas wakes up at Tower Prep and reacts exactly as you think he would.

Other recs: surfing the Revenge tag (now I know my first subscription when the fandom subscription feeds roll out on AO3!):

Living by Antecedents, by vegarin: As gen as it can get, Nolan-centric but with interesting Amanda (she’s always Amanda to Nolan) and great Jack

First and Last, by anonymous: Nolan and Amanda backstory.

Nolan Ross’ Bedtime Stories, by anonymous: Nolan retells the story in classic fairytale terms. It works!

Other recs:

Elementary Murder Mystery Analysis, by anonymous. Community: The voices are excellent.

Semaphore, by devildoll. Avengers etc., Tony/Steve. Full of witty asides and ridiculous concepts that just work, like Cupcake Avalanche. Excerpt:

"Not at all,” Tony says. As painful as this conversation is, it almost feels good to get it out in the open. “Look, I already had one person I was pining after who wouldn’t sleep with me, and I didn't really have the time to fit in another one, so I had to cut you loose. It's nothing personal, it was just a time management issue." …

Steve looks over his shoulder at the busted remains of the Hot Topic door, then turns back toward Tony. "You really wanted...?"

"Yes," Tony repeats, this time a little grumpily. God, this is torture. It's like he keeps ripping off the band-aid only to find another band-aid.

And finally, some non-fic notes:

Bob Dole and my favorite joke form: An apocryphal Washington exchange. Gingrich: “Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?” Dole: “Because it saves them time.”

Abigail Nussbaum on Homeland (so very spoilery but great analysis if you’ve seen it). Nussbaum is Mikey from that commercial: she likes it (mostly)! She doesn’t like anything!

Dispatches from the other side of the “war on Christmas”: today, my four-year-old daughter and I pass a barber shop, all decked out with Santa etc. She asks, “Mommy, are Jewish people allowed to go in that store?” I reassure her that we are. It takes a little while.

Barney Frank still has it:

What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences, because it's not profitable, and now Newt, as the highest-paid historian in American history, may be an encouragement to people to study history.

… So none of those people [Republican presidential candidates] I would want to be on a desert island with, unless one of them, as I said, had skills in catching fish or whatever I don't know about.

My favorite Barney Frank story, because it also uses my favorite joke form: Barney Frank is on a panel at Yale with Peggy Noonan, who gets asked a question she doesn’t want to answer immediately. To stall for time, she asks, “Why is [noted conservative and killjoy] Bob Bork smiling down at us?”—indicating a portrait of him in the room. Frank instantly replies, “Because it’s a painting and not a photograph.”

Also, because it amused me, the following exchange, at the start of oral argument, between the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and counsel for a fortuneteller who was challenging a local ordinance that prohibited fortunetelling within city limits on First Amendment grounds:
Chief Justice: Counsel, you have us at a disadvantage.
Attorney: Why, Your Honor?
Chief Justice: Well, hasn’t your client told you how this case will ultimately turn out?
Attorney: No, Your Honor, you must remember I did not consult my client for advice. She consulted me.

Also, this RPF reminds me of the glory days of popslash: a meditation on celebrity as a mask that eats into the face.

Tay Zhonday, Mama Economy: another ha ha ha sob commentary, from the singer behind Chocolate Rain.

There’s very little I like more than a good chiasmus, especially a political one: “I am not protesting because I need something to do. I am protesting because something needs to be done.”

Fringe:( Spoilers' heads hurt )

( We all know there's only one kind of one of these! ) I mean, I suppose I should be grateful Nick's Sporting Goods deigns to provide one option, right?

Shorter Pretty Little Liars Halloween special: ( spoilers! )

From giandujakiss: Lemony Snicket on Occupy Wall Street.

facetofcathy has a post about the OTW board candidates collecting information from various sources.

1. The new US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking feedback on how to make mortgage disclosure forms more understandable. If you have a few minutes, go and vote for the alternative you find easiest to understand.

2. I am seriously amused that Patrick Stump’s song This City, now free on iTunes, includes a lyric using the word “gentrification.”
( Civil War, understanding comics, economics and economic collapse, funky numbers )

From the hiring side, a story about part of the reason for the male/female pay gap where there's salary discretion.  I've tried to ask for more where relevant of late, and though sometimes I've gotten yes and sometimes no, I've never been worse off for asking.