Alexis Petridis reviews Paris Hilton's debut record. "She sings like a woman who has heard of something called singing, can't be sure of exactly what it might entail, but is fairly certain you do something a bit like this."
Louis Menand's review of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics is an interesting read—possibly more interesting than the book itself. However, back in 2004, Gene Weingarten covered the same questions, getting up close and personal with Ted Prus, a non-voter who "just doesn't give a rat's ass."
Thirty-five years ago this month, the first issue of a new audio magazine—cover price 50 cents—cautiously made its way out of a Philadelphia suburb. Its black'n'white cover featured a chessboard adorned with tubes and XLR plugs. Its 20 advertising-free pages included a feature on how to write an ad for an audio product, which had been penned by one Lucius Wordburger, a footnote helpfully pointing out that this was the nom de plume for one J. Gordon Holt, "who wishes to remain anonymous."