Most Recent Posts

If you've paid attention to the case of Edward Snowden, you might have heard Ecuadorean officials refer to some bankers the U.S. is refusing to hand over.

Ecuador, of course, is considering an asylum request from the NSA leaker. The U.S. is pressuring them to abide by an extradition request, while Ecuador is taunting the giant.

During a press conference on Thursday, National Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado said the United States should have been more thorough in analyzing its extradition request for "the bankers."

So who are these bankers?

Turns out they are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by the government of Ecuador in a Miami-Dade County court. The lawsuit was decided in the bankers' favor on May 31. We tracked down the final judgment, in which Circuit Court Judge John W. Thornton lays out who these two men are.

According to Thornton: Roberto and William Isaias Dassum were the president and vice president of Filanbanco, Ecuador's largest bank. In the late '90s, Ecuador descended into a severe banking crisis, so it created an agency a lot like the FDIC that pumped $1.16 billion into Filanbanco to keep it afloat.

That failed and, according to the government of Ecuador, the Dassums fled to Miami after allegedly embezzling millions.

"Ecuador has requested that the U.S. extradite the Defendants back to Ecuador to conclude criminal proceedings against them and to be sentenced. This extradition request is pending," Thornton writes.

In this lawsuit, however, Ecuador was asking the U.S. to confiscate about $20 million worth of assets the Dassums allegedly have in Miami. The government had already seized about $400 million in Ecuador.

The U.S. court refused Ecuador's request, saying it is under no obligation to enforce Ecuadorean laws. What's more, Thornton ruled, to allow Ecuador to confiscate property in the U.S. would "signify a substantial deviation from U.S. law and policy."

"The Defendants may have committed the wrongs which Ecuador has alleged," Thornton wrote. "However the manner in which Ecuador has attempted to right the Defendant's alleged wrongs is inconsistent with U.S. law and policy."

dassum by Eyder Peralta

Climate change seems like this complicated problem with a million pieces. But Henry Jacoby, an economist at MIT's business school, says there's really just one thing you need to do to solve the problem: Tax carbon emissions.

"If you let the economists write the legislation," Jacoby says, "it could be quite simple." He says he could fit the whole bill on one page.

Basically, Jacoby would tax fossil fuels in proportion to the amount of carbon they release. That would make coal, oil and natural gas more expensive. That's it; that's the whole plan.

Jacoby's colleague John Reilly told me the price of gasoline might rise by 25 cents a gallon in the first year. Over time, that would increase. By 2050, Reilly figures the carbon tax would add about $1 to the price of every gallon. Across the economy, prices of energy-intensive goods and services would rise. This would encourage people and businesses to be more efficient.

This is why economists love a carbon tax: One change to the tax code and the entire economy shifts to reduce carbon emissions. No complicated regulations. No rules for what kind of gas mileage cars have to get or what specific fraction of electricity has to come from wind or solar or renewables. That's by and large the way we do it now.

Reilly says the current web of rules is a more complicated and more expensive way of getting the same outcome as a carbon tax. The current system "pretty much is one of the worst ways we could do it," he says.

As with any fix for climate change, a carbon tax would hit some people harder than others. People with long commutes would pay more. People who work in coal mines could lose their jobs.

But here is where Reilly brings up what is perhaps the most surprising thing about a carbon tax: If you do it right, he says, carbon tax can be nearly painless for the economy as a whole.

Besides reducing carbon emissions, a carbon tax brings in a bunch of money — it's a tax after all. So, Reilly says, you can reduce, say, income tax to balance out the new taxes people are paying for carbon emissions. People pay more for gas, but they get to keep more of their income.

I called around and talked to a bunch of economists about this, and they said the basic idea was sound: If you give the carbon-tax money back by cutting income taxes, you can probably offset a lot of the pain.

President Obama has indicated he would support a market-based solution to climate change. But a carbon tax would, of course, require an act of Congress. And right now, that seems unlikely.

Peanuts, flax, sprouts and avocados: It's not the menu at a health food deli, but the menu inside some barns. What's more, many farmers experimenting with these gourmet feeds are growing the ingredients themselves.

Take Russ Kremer, the Missouri pig farmer whose operation served as the inspiration for the 2011 Chipotle ad. Kremer hasn't bought commercial animal feed in 30 years. Instead, he grazes his hogs in a pasture, and grows (or buys from neighbors) grains and legumes to supplement their nutrition.

Kremer and some of the other farmers developing specialty feed say they are willing to shoulder the extra cost and time to produce it because they're turned off by conventional feed mixes. The conventional mixes are what most of the hogs in the U.S. consume, and can include commodity corn and soybeans, blood protein, animal waste and rendered fats, according to Kremer.

Kremer also runs a co-op where farmers can pool resources to mill their own feed. "We opt for grains like barley and oats as often as possible, because most corn and soy is now [genetically modified]," he says.

The scarcity of non-GMO corn and soybeans is what led hog farmers Kelley and Mark Escobedo of South Texas Heritage Pork to experiment with peanuts.

Using their own 1950s-era mill, the farmers combine peanuts, peanut hay, and oats to boost the animals' protein intake and overall health — especially important because they raise their animals without antibiotics. The resulting meat has a delicate, nutty flavor that has helped them attract a loyal customer base willing to pay a higher price for the meat. "I've never had anyone come back and say it's not worth it," says Escobedo.

She and other farmers even take custom feed requests. Case in point: One restaurant shaped a special meal around a single hog that the Escobedos fed avocados (along with the peanut-based feed) for the last 6 weeks of its life.

"The meat was soft and delicious," Escobedo recalls. "It was the most delightful dinner I've ever eaten." (Pot-fed pigs are getting similarly rave reviews in Washington state, as we've reported.)

Farmers are supplementing animal feed with other ingredients found in gourmet kitchens, too. To boost his animals' immunity, Kremer uses oregano oil. To add omega-3 fatty acids, many cattlemen are adding the superfood flax to feed. And Nigel Walker of California's Eatwell Farm not only grows his own wheat to feed his egg=-laying hens, he also sprouts the grains for added nutrition.

Even as farmers learn to market meat from animals raised on special diets, only a small percent of consumers are willing to pay extra for it. A pastured chicken fed with homegrown grains, for instance, can cost as much as $20 to 25, compared with $10 for a conventional chicken in the grocery store.

The cost to farmers, in terms of both dollars and time, also remains significant. Kremer says he can afford homegrown feed because he saves money on veterinary care since he doesn't use antibiotics. His pigs also have a higher survival rate than average (just 1 percent mortality compared to nearly 5 percent industry-wide). But his operation is also much smaller than average, so the risks are different from a large hog operation.

Jack Lazor, author of the forthcoming book The Organic Grain Grower, and owner of Butterworks Farm in Vermont, says homegrown animal feed has fundamentally transformed his farm. Lazor supplements his dairy cows' diets with homegrown grains and feeds his laying hens kelp and soybeans he grows and roasts himself, using a recipe developed by Polyface Farm's Joel Salatin. The birds gain more weight, and the eggs are yellower, but more important to Lazor is the sense of being in complete control of what he calls the "craft of farming."

"When you're feeding an animal you can tweak it one way or the other based on the herd or the season," he says. "Plus, it just adds more meaning to your life."

Climate change seems like this complicated problem with a million pieces. But Henry Jacoby, an economist at MIT's business school, says there's really just one thing you need to do to solve the problem: Tax carbon emissions.

"If you let the economists write the legislation," Jacoby says, "it could be quite simple." He says he could fit the whole bill on one page.

Basically, Jacoby would tax fossil fuels in proportion to the amount of carbon they release. That would make coal, oil and natural gas more expensive. That's it; that's the whole plan.

Jacoby's colleague John Reilly told me the price of gasoline might rise by 25 cents a gallon in the first year. Over time, that would increase. By 2050, Reilly figures the carbon tax would add about $1 to the price of every gallon. Across the economy, prices of energy-intensive goods and services would rise. This would encourage people and businesses to be more efficient.

This is why economists love a carbon tax: One change to the tax code and the entire economy shifts to reduce carbon emissions. No complicated regulations. No rules for what kind of gas mileage cars have to get or what specific fraction of electricity has to come from wind or solar or renewables. That's by and large the way we do it now.

Reilly says the current web of rules is a more complicated and more expensive way of getting the same outcome as a carbon tax. The current system "pretty much is one of the worst ways we could do it," he says.

As with any fix for climate change, a carbon tax would hit some people harder than others. People with long commutes would pay more. People who work in coal mines could lose their jobs.

But here is where Reilly brings up what is perhaps the most surprising thing about a carbon tax: If you do it right, he says, carbon tax can be nearly painless for the economy as a whole.

Besides reducing carbon emissions, a carbon tax brings in a bunch of money — it's a tax after all. So, Reilly says, you can reduce, say, income tax to balance out the new taxes people are paying for carbon emissions. People pay more for gas, but they get to keep more of their income.

I called around and talked to a bunch of economists about this, and they said the basic idea was sound: If you give the carbon-tax money back by cutting income taxes, you can probably offset a lot of the pain.

President Obama has indicated he would support a market-based solution to climate change. But a carbon tax would, of course, require an act of Congress. And right now, that seems unlikely.

If you've paid attention to the case of Edward Snowden, you might have heard Ecuadorean officials refer to some bankers the U.S. is refusing to hand over.

Ecuador, of course, is considering an asylum request from the NSA leaker. The U.S. is pressuring them to abide by an extradition request, while Ecuador is taunting the giant.

During a press conference on Thursday, National Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado said the United States should have been more thorough in analyzing its extradition request for "the bankers."

So who are these bankers?

Turns out they are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by the government of Ecuador in a Miami-Dade County court. The lawsuit was decided in the bankers' favor on May 31. We tracked down the final judgment, in which Circuit Court Judge John W. Thornton lays out who these two men are.

According to Thornton: Roberto and William Isaias Dassum were the president and vice president of Filanbanco, Ecuador's largest bank. In the late '90s, Ecuador descended into a severe banking crisis, so it created an agency a lot like the FDIC that pumped $1.16 billion into Filanbanco to keep it afloat.

That failed and, according to the government of Ecuador, the Dassums fled to Miami after allegedly embezzling millions.

"Ecuador has requested that the U.S. extradite the Defendants back to Ecuador to conclude criminal proceedings against them and to be sentenced. This extradition request is pending," Thornton writes.

In this lawsuit, however, Ecuador was asking the U.S. to confiscate about $20 million worth of assets the Dassums allegedly have in Miami. The government had already seized about $400 million in Ecuador.

The U.S. court refused Ecuador's request, saying it is under no obligation to enforce Ecuadorean laws. What's more, Thornton ruled, to allow Ecuador to confiscate property in the U.S. would "signify a substantial deviation from U.S. law and policy."

"The Defendants may have committed the wrongs which Ecuador has alleged," Thornton wrote. "However the manner in which Ecuador has attempted to right the Defendant's alleged wrongs is inconsistent with U.S. law and policy."

dassum by Eyder Peralta

On the fun of writing a book that didn't require research

"I wrote so much of this book so quickly because I didn't really have that inhibition that I always had with the previous books. You know, my first book is about the Korean War. I always, writing those previous books, was worried that I would make some kind of mistake. Not an artistic mistake, but just a mistake, you know, write the wrong stuff. With this book it was a lot easier to just kind of look to my gut and think, 'Would she do it? Yeah, she would.'

"So I kind of wrote most of the first draft in this sort of, like, headlong rush — which is, in a lot of ways, the way Regina goes barreling through this series of events in her life, kind of obeying her appetites and her instincts, which often lead her way wrong and then, you know, finding herself — oh, my God — in situations that she didn't really anticipate.

"That happened to me when I was writing it. I didn't plan out everything that would happen, you know? It was fun."

On youth and the nature of sexuality and sexual identity

"There's a passage in the book in which kind of her older self reflects on it and says, 'We didn't really think about the fact that we were two women.' She says that that wasn't ever a primary thought, I think because there weren't a lot of thoughts. And I really wanted to bring that alive. Her lover — who's older, who's actually in a marriage — is sort of the one who's like, 'We just can't do this the way you think we can do it.'

"Regina's very young, she thinks like, 'What? What? What's wrong? We love each other. Well, why should we have to think about anything else?' And I wanted to capture both the intensity of that — thinking there's no obstacles — and her older self looking back and kind of marveling that she could ever feel that way."

More On Susan Choi

Book Tour

Susan Choi Draws 'Interest' from Headlines

Enlarge image i

Andrew Pochter, a 21-year-old Kenyon College student from Chevy Chase, Md., is the American who was killed Friday in Alexandria, Egypt, when violence broke out during a protest against the government of President Mohammed Morsi, the college says. He was one of at least three people who died from injuries they suffered.

Citing U.S. embassy officials as its source for that news, the Ohio school adds that:

"Pochter was an intern at AMIDEAST, an American non-profit organization engaged in international education, training and development activities in the Middle East and North Africa."

Interview Highlights

On why he loves Casino Royale

"I'm also an enormous fan of the Ian Fleming books. Once you get into the books of James Bond, you realize that the movies were very different, cause they were kind of dark. And so when I saw this come on and saw Daniel Craig—this kind of like brooding Bond—it just felt like perfect to me to the point, and this is heresy to say, I actually think he is my favorite Bond over even Sean Connery, who I loved, you know, but I just think that Craig really embodies Ian Fleming's James Bond."

On why he thinks Daniel Craig is the best James Bond

"Daniel Craig really is the Bond that you want to be or at least I feel like I do. You know, I mean, watching Roger Moore you go like, 'That'd be fun!' because it also seems like it's really jaunty and funny and cool, but what's great about the Daniel Craig one is you feel like okay, he can kind of get out of any situation and yet maybe he cant. You know, he's still very human."

Peanuts, flax, sprouts and avocados: It's not the menu at a health food deli, but the menu inside some barns. What's more, many farmers experimenting with these gourmet feeds are growing the ingredients themselves.

Take Russ Kremer, the Missouri pig farmer whose operation served as the inspiration for the 2011 Chipotle ad. Kremer hasn't bought commercial animal feed in 30 years. Instead, he grazes his hogs in a pasture, and grows (or buys from neighbors) grains and legumes to supplement their nutrition.

Kremer and some of the other farmers developing specialty feed say they are willing to shoulder the extra cost and time to produce it because they're turned off by conventional feed mixes. The conventional mixes are what most of the hogs in the U.S. consume, and can include commodity corn and soybeans, blood protein, animal waste and rendered fats, according to Kremer.

Kremer also runs a co-op where farmers can pool resources to mill their own feed. "We opt for grains like barley and oats as often as possible, because most corn and soy is now [genetically modified]," he says.

The scarcity of non-GMO corn and soybeans is what led hog farmers Kelley and Mark Escobedo of South Texas Heritage Pork to experiment with peanuts.

Using their own 1950s-era mill, the farmers combine peanuts, peanut hay, and oats to boost the animals' protein intake and overall health — especially important because they raise their animals without antibiotics. The resulting meat has a delicate, nutty flavor that has helped them attract a loyal customer base willing to pay a higher price for the meat. "I've never had anyone come back and say it's not worth it," says Escobedo.

She and other farmers even take custom feed requests. Case in point: One restaurant shaped a special meal around a single hog that the Escobedos fed avocados (along with the peanut-based feed) for the last 6 weeks of its life.

"The meat was soft and delicious," Escobedo recalls. "It was the most delightful dinner I've ever eaten." (Pot-fed pigs are getting similarly rave reviews in Washington state, as we've reported.)

Farmers are supplementing animal feed with other ingredients found in gourmet kitchens, too. To boost his animals' immunity, Kremer uses oregano oil. To add omega-3 fatty acids, many cattlemen are adding the superfood flax to feed. And Nigel Walker of California's Eatwell Farm not only grows his own wheat to feed his egg=-laying hens, he also sprouts the grains for added nutrition.

Even as farmers learn to market meat from animals raised on special diets, only a small percent of consumers are willing to pay extra for it. A pastured chicken fed with homegrown grains, for instance, can cost as much as $20 to 25, compared with $10 for a conventional chicken in the grocery store.

The cost to farmers, in terms of both dollars and time, also remains significant. Kremer says he can afford homegrown feed because he saves money on veterinary care since he doesn't use antibiotics. His pigs also have a higher survival rate than average (just 1 percent mortality compared to nearly 5 percent industry-wide). But his operation is also much smaller than average, so the risks are different from a large hog operation.

Jack Lazor, author of the forthcoming book The Organic Grain Grower, and owner of Butterworks Farm in Vermont, says homegrown animal feed has fundamentally transformed his farm. Lazor supplements his dairy cows' diets with homegrown grains and feeds his laying hens kelp and soybeans he grows and roasts himself, using a recipe developed by Polyface Farm's Joel Salatin. The birds gain more weight, and the eggs are yellower, but more important to Lazor is the sense of being in complete control of what he calls the "craft of farming."

"When you're feeding an animal you can tweak it one way or the other based on the herd or the season," he says. "Plus, it just adds more meaning to your life."

The Senate approved a sweeping immigration bill Thursday, endorsing a bill that would put millions of immigrants who illegally entered the United States on a path to citizenship. The final vote tally on the bill was 68 in favor, with 32 opposed.

The bill also includes measures that would punish employers who take advantage of immigrant workers, as well as providing billions in spending to employ fences and high-tech tools to help secure the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

All 52 Democratic senators voted for the bill, along with 14 Republicans and two independents.

The legislation, Senate Bill 744, is widely seen as the product of the efforts of the "Gang of 8," a group that includes Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J.

During today's final vote, the chamber briefly erupted in laughter after Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., mistakenly answered the roll call vote with "Aye" — supporting the bill — before abruptly and loudly correcting his mistake by yelling "No!"

Around midday Thursday, the Senate voted to invoke cloture on the bill, called the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, setting an end to debate on the legislation. It has grown to nearly 2,000 pages, although that includes many pages of material that was stricken during debate and compromise.

The bill has been seen as a main priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who insisted the chamber would act on it before the July 4 holiday. It is also a centerpiece of the Obama administration's legislative agenda.

"It's landmark legislation that will secure our borders and help 11 million people get right with the law," Reid said Thursday.

The tally of the cloture vote earlier today was also 68-32, with 14 Republicans joining Democrats in voting for the motion. When the Senate approved an amendment on border security to the bill earlier this week, the vote was 67-27, with 15 Republicans voting in favor.

But it remains to be seen how the immigration bill will be greeted in the House of Representatives. And in the Senate, opponents of the bill have included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his deputy, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Several House Republicans are believed to be working on their own versions of the legislation.

"This bill may pass the Senate today, but not with my vote. And in its current form, it won't become law," McConnell said.

Other Republicans, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sought to build support for the bill among their party. Backers of the immigration overhaul have said they hoped to pass the legislation with strong support, to improve its chances in the House.

Speaking before the vote began, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., invoked the memory of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"I like to think that our old friend would be proud of what we're doing," Leahy said.

If you're looking for a deal on prescription drugs or tired of standing in line at the drugstore counter, maybe you'd be inclined to try an online pharmacy.

Perhaps you'd feel better about that choice if the site carried the name of a well-known chain, say, www.walgreen-store.com or www.c-v-s-pharmacy.com.

Well, not so fast. The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado cracked down on those misleading sites, which weren't connected to their namesakes, and more than 1,600 others that the feds say are breaking the law by selling prescription drugs, some of them counterfeits.

"Illegal online pharmacies put American consumers' health at risk by selling potentially dangerous products," John Roth, director of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, said in a statement. "This is an ongoing battle in the United States and abroad ...."

Many of the websites that were shut down claimed to be Canadian companies. But the FDA says that was a lie. The websites made use of bogus licenses and certifications to trick U.S. consumers, the FDA said.

The far-reaching bust is part of an international effort with a catchy, prehistoric name: Pangea VI. Pretty sure online drug sales weren't a problem back in the supercontinent's heyday.

This modern sweep was part of an International Internet Week of Action that wrapped up June 25.

The Interpol-coordinated Pangea project, now in its sixth wave, goes after sites hawking unapproved or risky drugs. Many of the them also sell drugs that legally require a prescription without actually getting one.

The FDA told one operator of many websites, including canadianfamilypharmacy.biz and cheapcanadianpharmacy.net, to stop selling drugs that violate U.S. laws. The agency's warning letter said a couple of impotence drugs being sold as "Levitra Super Force" and "Viagra Super Force" hadn't been approved by the agency. FDA also faulted the sites for selling "generic Celebrex." Problem is that Celebrex, a painkiller, is only available as a brand-name drug in this country, so a generic version is verboten.

Separately, Maine just enacted a law making it OK for residents to buy prescription drugs from other countries.

The FDA doesn't approve. "Medicine bought from foreign sources, such as from Internet sellers, from businesses that offer to buy foreign medicine for you, or during trips outside the United States, may not be safe or effective," an FDA spokesman told Shots via email in response to questions about the Maine law..

If you've paid attention to the case of Edward Snowden, you might have heard Ecuadorian officials refer to some bankers the U.S. is refusing to hand over.

Ecuador, of course, is considering an asylum request from the NSA leaker. The U.S. is pressuring them to abide by an extradition request, while Ecuador is taunting the giant.

During a press conference on Thursday, National Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado said the United States should have been more thorough in analyzing its extradition request for "the bankers."

So who are these bankers?

Turns out they are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by the government of Ecuador in a Miami-Dade County court. The lawsuit was decided in the bankers' favor on May 31. We tracked down the final judgement, in which Circuit Court Judge John W. Thornton lays out who these two men are.

According to Thornton: Roberto and William Isaias Dassum were the president and vice president of Filanbanco, Ecuador's largest bank. In the late '90s, Ecuador descended into a severe banking crisis, so it created an agency a lot like the FDIC that pumped $1.16 billion into Filanbanco to keep it afloat.

That failed and, according to the government of Ecuador, the Dassums fled to Miami after allegedly embezzling millions.

"Ecuador has requested that the U.S. extradite the Defendants back to Ecuador to conclude criminal proceedings against them and to be sentenced. This extradition request is pending," Thornton writes.

In this lawsuit, however, Ecuador was asking the U.S. to confiscate about $20 million worth of assets the Dassums allegedly have in Miami. The government had already seized about $400 million in Ecuador.

The U.S. court refused Ecuador's request, saying it is under no obligation to enforce Ecuadorian laws. What's more, Thornton ruled, to allow Ecuador to confiscate property in the U.S. would "signify a substantial deviation from U.S. law and policy."

"The Defendants may have committed the wrongs which Ecuador has alleged," Thornton wrote. "However the manner in which Ecuador has attempted to right the Defendant's alleged wrongs is inconsistent with U.S. law and policy."

dassum by Eyder Peralta

I'm So Excited

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Genre: Comedy

Running Time: 90 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content including crude references and drug use

With: Javier Cmara, Pepa Charro, Lola Dueas

They shack up in the shuttered hotel that gives the film its title, and soon Clara has convinced Noel (Daniel Mays), a hapless would-be john, to let her run a brothel out of the place. Meanwhile Eleanor wanders the town, plays piano for the senior citizens she's targeting for mercy killings, and falls for Frank (Caleb Landry Jones), a local teen whose dark moodiness mirrors hers.

The modern scenes are interspersed with the twosome's 19th-century origin story, in which Jonny Lee Miller plays an officer with a habit of making harlots out of respectable girls, taking their virtue by force and convincing them that selling themselves is all they have left.

Therein is encoded a neat notion: Buffini's script parallels the "making" of a prostitute with the way vampire stories treat the making of a vampire; out of a singular act of predatory violence, something is lost, and a life is changed forever. The device allows for a narrative with strong feminist avenues to explore: Buffini's sucreants, as a culture, have a rule that only males are allowed to make other sucreants. Just as men choose women to force into lives of sexual servitude, so too do they determine which will lose their souls and become part of their undead family.

Jordan is at the height of his visual powers here, and his appetite for grim fairy-tale imagery is fully up as well — he dresses Eleanor in a red hood at one point, merging a monster of a different sort with the eternally carnal Little Red. These kinds of crossovers and juxtapositions are all over the film; in one wonderfully choreographed sequence, he crosscuts between one of Eleanor's impromptu piano recitals and Clara's seedy sexual negotiations, the elegant music providing a soundtrack for some decidedly dirty deeds.

But despite its smart subtext and expert direction, there's something missing. Part of the problem lies within the 19th-century sequences, which just don't have the narrative drive of the present day. We need to see Jonny Lee Miller scowling and being cruel only so many times before we get the picture.

There's also a Victorian chill to Eleanor's writings that winds up permeating the entire film, despite the glowing neon lights and blood that runs (very) red. Jordan favors that reserved tone ever so slightly, and the upshot is that his film too often winds up feeling what a film about the undead shouldn't: lifeless.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

When NASA launches its first solar sail mission into deep space, it'll be carrying DNA from some of the late, legendary science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke's hair. Most famous as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke was also an explorer, and in 1956, he discovered the underwater ruins of the Koneswaram temple in Sri Lanka while scuba diving. NASA's mission is called The Sunjammer Project after Clarke's 1964 short story about outer-space solar sail racing. NASA describes a solar sail craft as "a huge, ultra-thin sail unfurling in space, using the pressure of sunlight to provide propellant-free transport, hovering and exploration capabilities." NASA says it hopes to launch the sail "as early as 2014."

The body of Dr. James Martin, author of The Wired Society: A Challenge for Tomorrow, was found Monday floating off of Agar's Island, the island he owned in Bermuda, authorities told Bernews, a Bermuda news outlet. Police said that although the investigation is ongoing, "there does not appear to be any suspicious circumstances." Martin wrote more than 100 books but was best known for The Wired Society, which was published in 1977 and it is seen as an early prediction of the Internet. He is also the largest-ever donor to Oxford University, whose eponymous Martin School released a statement saying that the author was an "inspiration to millions — an extraordinary intellect, with wide-ranging interests, boundless energy and an unwavering commitment to addressing the greatest challenges facing humanity."

The Random House imprint Hogarth is commissioning authors such as Jeanette Winterson and Anne Tyler to write "prose retellings" of Shakespeare plays. Winterson, who chose The Winter's Tale, wrote in the press release: "All of us have talismanic texts that we have carried around and that carry us around. I have worked with The Winter's Tale in many disguises for many years." She told The Guardian that "the Shakespeare purists miss the point about his exuberant ragbag of borrowings thrown into the alchemical furnace of his mind and lifted out transformed. He sums up the creative process, which is not concerned with originality of source but originality of re-making." The project is expected to launch in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

Ben Urwand, author of the forthcoming book The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler, told The New York Times that in the 1930s, "Hollywood is not just collaborating with Nazi Germany. It's also collaborating with Adolf Hitler, the person and human being." Although the Nazi influence on Hollywood has been well-documented, Urwand suggests previous historians have underestimated Hitler's reach. Among other discoveries, Urwand found a letter from the German arm of 20th Century Fox asking for Hitler to give feedback on American films and signed "Heil Hitler!" (The Fuhrer apparently hated Tarzan, but liked Laurel and Hardy.)

The City of Devi author Manil Suri describes growing up gay in India for Granta: "While launching my new novel at the Kolkata Book Festival this year, I was warned that Calcutta was a very conservative city. 'Whatever you do, don't read out any of the gay scenes. Especially not the gay sex scenes.' Naturally, that's exactly what I did. The results were disappointing. Nobody shouted, nobody swooned, the city seemed to pull through just fine. ... This was supposed to be my great in-your-face coming-out campaign, which I'd fretted over for months beforehand. Had India suddenly lost its conservativeness, turned enlightened, even hip?"

When blueberries are in season, you don't need to turn on the oven to make a delicious dessert. Valerie Erwin says it takes just 15 minutes to make one of her favorite summer dishes, Blueberry Dumplings. She shared the recipe for All Things Considered's Found Recipes series.

Erwin is the chef and owner of Geechee Girl Rice Cafe in Philadelphia. "Geechee" is a term for the descendants of the enslaved Africans who lived off the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Erwin's grandparents are from the area.

She says her family is a close-knit one — where siblings are best friends who aren't hesitant to ask for sweet favors. Among her sisters, blueberry dumplings are always in demand, especially during their annual vacation together in August.

The dumplings in question are similar to those used in dishes like chicken and dumplings.

"It's made from a soft biscuit dough dropped on top of sweetened, stewed blueberries," Erwin says.

She got the recipe from her Great Aunt Lil. Like Erwin's relationship with her siblings, Lil was close to her sister, Erwin's grandmother. Both were seamstresses who worked in the garment industry.

"She came from Charleston with my grandmother and my grandfather in the '20s, and she lived just about maybe a mile and a half away from where we did in North Philadelphia," Erwin says.

She had her first taste of blueberry dumplings in 1964, when she was 11. Lil served the dish to Erwin and her cousin, who was visiting from across town. It was love at first bite.

"The minute I put a piece of the dumpling and a little bit of the blueberry sauce in my mouth, it was just mesmerizing," she says. "It was so delicious and so unusual that it cemented everything else about that memory — that it was warm out, I remember that it was rainy, I remember that it was the middle of the day — things that I'm sure I would have forgotten if that dish hadn't been so delicious."

The dumplings are best when served warm. Erwin's family also likes to pour a little cold heavy cream on top.

"[It] makes it even more delicious and helps with the cooling," she says.

Never fear if blueberries aren't in season — Erwin says the recipe can last all summer long if you substitute other fresh fruits like tart cherries and blackberries.

The Senate's "Gang of Eight" on the immigration overhaul legislation became a gang of 68 when all was said and done Thursday.

And that number is important, especially to the senators. Supporters of the immigration bill in the Democratic-controlled Senate have said a strong bipartisan Senate vote for the legislation would put enough pressure on the House to force it to take up comprehensive legislation.

If the Senate couldn't get to 70 votes, the thinking went, nearing that mark could give an immigration overhaul unstoppable momentum in Congress.

"Make no mistake about it. The support this bill has generated here in the Senate will make it impossible to ignore," Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the immigration bill's chief sponsor, said before the Senate approved the legislation. "I believe the support this bill will receive today in the Senate will propel it to pass the House and be placed for signature on the president's desk by the end of the year."

Unfortunately for Schumer and other supporters of comprehensive immigration legislation, there's enough recent evidence to suggest that strong bipartisan support for legislation in the Senate doesn't necessarily lead to a similar result in the House.

The farm bill, for instance, recently passed the Senate with 66 votes and was widely expected to pass the House. But it didn't. The legislation failed in a 195-to-234 vote in the House because some Republicans thought it spent too much on nutrition-assistance programs and payments to farmers.

Another recent example: The Marketplace Fairness Act, which would give states the power to collect sales taxes from online retailers just as they do from brick-and-mortar sellers, passed the Senate in May with 69 "yea" votes, including 21 Republicans. But the legislation has languished in the House for lack of enough Republican support.

So Schumer could be whistling past the graveyard of moribund legislation in claiming that the immigration legislation's strong showing in the Senate will give it traction in the the House. That body has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to ignore the Senate's work.

Changing its story. Walking it back. Clarifying.

Whatever you call it, the IRS inspector general now has a different account of what investigators knew about the ideologies of the groups that underwent extra scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status.

Inspector General J. Russell George explained in a letter released Thursday morning that investigators knew all along "progressives" were listed in documents used by IRS agents to screen applications.

But "we found no indication," he wrote, "that 'Progressives' was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention."

The letter, addressed to Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, directly contradicts statements made Tuesday to NPR and a number of other media outlets by a spokeswoman for the inspector general.

On Tuesday the spokeswoman said the treatment of progressive groups was outside the scope of the audit requested by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

What changed? We don't know. The letter ends by saying, "Many of these press reports are not accurate." But notably, agency officials aren't claiming they were misquoted.

The audit, released last month, set off a political firestorm by charging that the IRS systematically targeted Tea Party groups, subjecting them to excessively long wait times and unnecessary questioning about their donors and their beliefs.

The spokeswoman told NPR, which called back to verify the accuracy of the quotes, that the inspector general was only asked to look at the targeting of Tea Party groups. The letter now asserts that the scope was much broader. "We reviewed all cases that the IRS identified as potential political cases and did not limit our audit to allegations related to the Tea Party."

At issue are a series of spreadsheets known at the IRS as "Be On the Lookout" notices, or BOLOs. They were used by IRS agents as a guide as they sorted through thousands of applications for tax-exempt status.

While the inspector feneral's audit said the BOLOs targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny, it made no mention of progressive groups. On Monday, Levin's office posted 15 redacted BOLOs, and most of them list "Progressives" as well as "Tea Party."

The BOLO entry for "Progressives," in fact, stated explicitly that in the IRS's view, these groups were overtly political: "Common thread is the word 'progressive.' Activities appear to lean toward a new political party. Activities are partisan and appear as anti-Republican. You see references to 'blue' as being 'progressive.' "

When asked why the audit didn't mention the flagging of progressive groups, on Tuesday the spokeswoman said, "[Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] was not aware of any BOLOs listing progressive organizations when it conducted its review."

The Thursday letter to Levin says something very different: "The 'Progressives' criteria appeared on a section of the 'Be On The Look Out' (BOLO) spreadsheet labeled 'Historical,' and, unlike the other BOLO entries, did not include instructions on how to refer cases that met the criteria."

Translation: While the Tea Party entry told agents to send all the cases to a specific person who was working those files, the spreadsheet columns where instructions would be listed were blank for the "Progressives" entry.

The letter further muddles what had already become a mess of selective information releases, partisan bomb-throwing and rhetorical hyperbole. But it makes it clear the inspector general believes Tea Party groups did have it worse than progressives. It also makes it clear progressive groups were among those that got added scrutiny as potential political cases.

Partisans on both sides claimed Thursday's letter as vindication. House Republican aides circulated it, saying the letter proves progressives weren't targeted. Meanwhile, Democrats from the House Ways and Means Committee said the omission of progressive groups means the inspector general's audit was fundamentally flawed, and they're asking the committee chairman to call George back to testify.

At a committee hearing this morning, one Democrat pointed out that George was nominated to be inspector general by former President George W. Bush.

I'm So Excited

Director: Pedro Almodvar

Genre: Comedy

Running Time: 90 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content including crude references and drug use

With: Javier Cmara, Pepa Charro, Lola Dueas

The U.S. suspended some trade benefits to Bangladesh on Thursday, citing unsafe working conditions. But in the near term it appears unlikely to have a major impact on the country's crucial garment industry.

Here's why: Bangladesh was suspended from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, so U.S. duties will rise on a range of items from tobacco to plastic. But this program doesn't cover garments — Bangladesh's main export to America.

Less than 1 percent of Bangladesh's nearly $5 billion in exports to the U.S. are covered by the GSP, according to The Associated Press.

However, the Obama administration's decision could have two consequences.

As Reuters notes: "Obama's decision would be a repudiation of working conditions in Bangladesh following the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in April that killed 1,129 people and the Tazreen factory fire in November that killed 112. It also could influence the European Union's decision whether to suspend trade benefits for Bangladesh, which would have far more impact since Bangladesh's clothing and textiles exports receive duty-free treatment there."

The AP reports that congressional leaders have pushed the Bangladeshi government to improve worker safety in the country.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza building has drawn attention to unsafe working conditions.

Our friends at NPR's Planet Money even asked if buying a T-shirt from the country is good or bad for its people.

But as we've reported in the past, some of the changes in Bangladesh are coming from Western retailers who use the country's cheap labor to make fast fashion.

The garment industry has low margins and this creates great pressure to keep wages low — though there have been some efforts to improve conditions.

Brazil is in the midst of a building boom as it constructs stadiums across the country in preparation for the World Cup it will host next year. In Sao Paulo, hundreds of workers are building a massive arena that will take many more months to complete.

But not all of the workers are Brazilian.

Marie Eveline Melous, 26, arrived from Haiti just a few months ago because life was so difficult, especially after the huge earthquake in 2010. "It's hard to find work. I came to Brazil to help my situation," she says.

She's now working in the administration department at the stadium construction site, and her Haitian husband works here as a welder.

They are among the lucky ones — they have visas and jobs. But across town there are many more who are struggling to survive.

There are more than 100 Haitians clustered in a dark waiting room at Our Lady of Peace Church in downtown Sao Paulo. They are the newest group of undocumented migrants to come flooding into Brazil.

The Rev. Paulo Parise, who runs the mission, says Brazil has entered a new phase. "Brazil used to export its people overseas, but now we are attracting migrants," he says.

An Emerging Issue

The number of undocumented migrants here is still tiny compared with countries like the U.S., where there are millions of illegal immigrants. Such immigrants make up less than 1 percent of the Brazilian population.

But the number is growing and advocates say Brazil doesn't know how to cope.

In April, a Brazilian state on the Bolivian border declared a state of emergency after only a few thousand Haitians made their way into the country.

Related NPR Stories

Parallels

Brazil Looks To Build A 10,000-Mile Virtual Fence

While Americans often lament the state of politics in Washington, spare a thought for Australians, who will wake up Thursday morning under a different prime minister than the one they went to bed with.

Just as Australians were preparing for national elections in September, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took back the reins of power from Julia Gillard, the woman who had deposed him three years before.

Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister by challenging Rudd for the leadership of the ruling Labor Party, as Rudd was floundering in the polls. It was the first time a sitting first-term prime minister had been deposed in Australia.

"Knifed in the back" was how some commentators described it.

Such is the system in Australia, where people don't vote directly for the prime minister but for local members of Parliament; the majority party elects its leader and thus the prime minister.

The U.S. Electoral College has its critics, but at least it provides a certain amount of stability. Love him or hate him, Americans know that, barring any high crimes and misdemeanors, a sitting president will be around until the next election.

In Australia, things can be a bit more abrupt and dramatic.

Rudd might have been down, but he never went out. In a script Machiavelli couldn't have written better, Rudd remained in Parliament, gaining sympathy from the public over his surprise ouster and biding his time until he could once again take the reins of power.

His detractors in Parliament blamed him for leaks that undermined Gillard's government, and the ever-present specter of Rudd's possible return to power was blamed for Gillard's slow decline in popularity.

With an election just two months away and polls showing Labor set for a historic defeat, Rudd's opportunity for a return was at hand. Those same polls showed that if he was in charge, Labor would at least have a fighting chance at the election.

And so, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, "it was dj vu all over again." Rudd moved against Gillard in a late-night leadership challenge, and Gillard went out the same way she came in. Having broken through the glass ceiling for women in Australia, Gillard says she's now quitting the political arena.

Australian politics have often been described as a full-contact sport. There is little sense of the decorum and respect usually seen in the U.S. House or Senate.

While two members of Congress may wildly disagree on an issue, on the floor it's always "the gentleman from Ohio" or the "gentlewoman from California." When Rep. Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar during a 2009 speech to Congress, the rebuke by the House of Representatives was swift.

But on the floor of Australia's Parliament it's not unusual for the party leaders to call each other "liars," "brain-damaged," "gutless," "vermin" ... and worse.

During a fiery debate last October, Gillard labeled the leader of the opposition a misogynist.

The state of Australian politics even led one of the country's most famous exports, actor Russell Crowe, to speak out. During a recent interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Crowe complained:

"It's just a lack of gallantry that has crept into not just politics but the way politics is reported, and I think it gives license to a type of hater that will only further reduce the quality of our lives, you know? The better politicians we have in place, the better our society is going to be, the better all of our lives are."

The job of postmaster general was once one of the country's most politically powerful. It is also one of the oldest; a version of the position existed before the Declaration of Independence.

But today, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe finds himself continually caught in the political crossfire. Donahoe is tangling with unions and members of Congress over how to manage the Postal Service's future — as it faces huge losses, dwindling mail volume and ballooning costs.

It may seem strange now, but Donahoe was originally drawn to postal work by the money.

"$4.76 an hour, and in 1975 that was a lot of money," he recalls, "so I thought, 'Well, I'll try that for a while until I'm done with school,' and I never left."

In 37 years, he has occupied nearly every position at the Postal Service: "vehicle maintenance, airport operations, accounting, personnel, labor relations."

The Postal Service is one of the largest employers in the country, but it is saddled with enormous retirement and health care costs that it cannot afford. It's running billions of dollars in the red and has had to borrow heavily from the U.S. Treasury. Its main source of revenue — first-class mail — is falling off. It is trying to grow its package-delivery business, but there, it competes with FedEx and UPS, and technological change is swift.

Donahoe grew up in Pittsburgh, coming of age at a time when that city was shaped by its own rapidly declining industry.

"In the '80s, we lost the steel industry. Gone! Well, I witnessed 100,000 people lose their jobs because people did not pay attention to what was going on in the economy," he says.

Donahoe is closing some mail-sorting facilities and reducing hours at less-trafficked post offices.

But reining in costs isn't just a business challenge; it's politically fraught. That's because, though its operations are not taxpayer-funded, the Postal Service is also controlled by Congress, which mandates delivery of mail to every household in the United States and requires it to prefund retiree benefits, decades into the future.

This hybrid governance structure, not surprisingly, leads to tension. Donahoe's most public skirmish with Capitol Hill came earlier this year, when he announced plans to save money by ending Saturday letter delivery without congressional approval. Two months later, Congress forced him to scrap those plans.

“ I speak to the people in the field. And time and time again, they've said to me, 'Don't give up on this stuff; my job's at stake.'

The official clock ran out on Texas lawmakers overnight, which effectively killed a bill that would have dramatically restricted abortion in the nation's second most populous state. Hours of chaos and confusion in Austin finally lifted as Texas Senate leaders decided that the vote on Senate Bill 5 did not clear a constitutionally-mandated hurdle that it pass before midnight.

The vote happened at 12:02 a.m. CT, two minutes after the Legislature's mandated end to its special session. (Special sessions in Texas are restricted to 30 days and called by the governor.) Democratic lawmakers, and throngs of protesters that filled the Capitol rotunda, had sought to run out the clock on the vote all day.

There was the daylong filibuster attempt by Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis, nearly an hour of procedural back-and-forth and roaring crowds in the gallery that disrupted order and slowed down the process. The Dallas Morning News describes the scene:

"The extended drama came after Republicans used strict interpretations of Senate rules to knock Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, off her marathon filibuster. The final vote was delayed several minutes by loud applause from the gallery, drowning out the action on the floor."

When Chinese workers have a grievance, they are increasingly taking dramatic and direct action.

As we've reported, an American executive at a Chinese factory has been prevented by workers from leaving the plant since Friday. Chip Starnes of Specialty Medical Supplies says it's a misunderstanding following a decision to shut down part of his medical-supply business and move some jobs to India where wages are lower.

He says workers erroneously believe he plans to lay them all off. As of Wednesday, he still wasn't allowed to leave the plant on the outskirts of Beijing.

This story is part of a larger pattern of labor strife in China.

As The Wall Street Journal noted: "While bosses aren't held captive in their companies every day in China, Starnes is not the first one. In January this year, around 1,000 workers at Shanghai Shinmei Electric Company held Japanese and Chinese managers hostage in the factory, claiming that work rules for bathroom breaks and punishments for tardiness were too harsh."

Li Qiang, executive director of New York-based China Labor Watch, says though the problem is common, it's rare for a Westerner to be involved.

"Generally, a lot of worker protests are similar to this because of unpaid wages," he told NPR through a translator. "Bosses move factories without a heads up to workers, and so workers are left unpaid."

Indeed, as the Journal says: "Numbers for such disputes are hard to come by, though an investigation by the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper published by the official Xinhua news agency, found that more than 400 bosses ran away from bankrupt factories in Eastern China's Zhejiang province in 2008.

Most of those executives worked for foreign companies, meaning workers had virtually no hope of claiming months or even years of back pay owed to them."

NPR's Anthony Kuhn explained the root of the story on Tuesday's Morning Edition:

"The big picture is that Chinese wages are starting to rise pretty quickly, particularly in the coastal manufacturing enclaves. And so foreign manufacturers have to look farther inland where wages are lower or they have to look to other countries, including Southeast Asia. Every country welcomes investment coming in. When it [investment] starts to look elsewhere, when it starts to move out, sometimes companies experience difficulties. ... We may be seeing this more and more in the future, and the question is: Does China have the infrastructure and the institutional resources to deal with this? And in this case, the answer is no."

Editor's Note: As part of our reboot of All Tech Considered, we'll invite contributors to blog about big-picture questions facing tech and society. One theme we're exploring is the lack of women and people of color in tech — a gap so glaring that ridiculously long lines at tech conferences have inspired photo essays and Twitter feeds.

Enlarge image i

Turkey's battle with the Internet took a new twist on Wednesday.

A Turkish government minister said Twitter has refused to cooperate with the government, but that Facebook had responded "positively" and was "in cooperation with the state."

Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yilderim, quoted in Turkish media, did not elaborate on what this cooperation entails. But Turkish officials have complained that social media outlets aren't sharing user access information with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.

The story took an additional turn later in the day, when Facebook issued a statement denying that it was cooperating with the government:

"Facebook has not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests relating to the protests. More generally, we reject all government data requests from Turkish authorities and push them to formal legal channels unless it appears that there is an immediate threat to life or a child, which has been the case in only a small fraction of the requests we have received."

John Hammergren, the chairman, president, and CEO of drug distributor and health care services company McKesson, may have the largest pension for an individual on record, at a reported $159 million. The Wall Street Journal reported on Hammergren's pension Tuesday, citing company filings made last week.

From The Journal:

"Compensation consultants say it's by far the largest pension on file for a current executive of a public company, and almost certainly the largest ever in corporate America. It's also more than double the value of the 54-year-old Mr. Hammergren's pension six years ago."

The newspaper adds that Hammergren was named a co-CEO in 1999. He is one of the highest-paid chief executives in the U.S. business world, making an average of more than $50 million each year. The recent accounting of his pension tabulated what he would be owed in a lump-sum payment if he had voluntarily left McKesson on March 31.

McKesson currently ranks No. 14 on the Fortune 500 list, in part because of "a key contract with the Department of Veteran Affairs," according to CNN Money.

In March, Hammergren's name was connected to another pension fund: that of New York City. The city's comptroller, John C. Liu, led calls to remove Hammergren and another member of Hewlett-Packard's board of directors, blaming them for the company's disastrous $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy. Despite being re-elected by shareholders, the two board members stepped down from their posts in April.

The Journal notes that Hammergren's tenure has seen McKesson's stock triple, with the company reporting net income of $1.34 billion for the most recent financial year. But its analysis also found that the CEO's pension has been inflated by "several unusual factors," including crediting him "for extra years of service and for pay that he didn't receive."

Citing executive pay tracking firm GMI Ratings, the AP reports that "54 percent of CEOs of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index have accumulated pension benefits. The average value of their pensions is just over $7 million, down from $11.5 million a year ago."

The next-highest pension, the AP says, belongs to News Corp. CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch, who would get $74 million. The AP also says compensation analysts call Hammergren's pension the largest on record.

Hammergren is expected to speak at McKesson's Investor Day event Wednesday, which begins at 9 a.m. ET, according to a company release.

Perhaps it's the combination of Sunday night's Mad Men finale and the flurry of Sopranos discussion that followed the death of James Gandolfini, but it's hard not to be struck by the explosion of writing about television that's occurred in the last 15 years or so, facilitated (of course) by the ability to go from rolling credits to publication in an hour (if necessary). After any major episode, there will be a flurry of commentary, and even after minor episodes of minor shows, there are write-ups here and there.

But while these pieces — whether you call them recaps, reviews, essays, commentaries, whatever — may look the same, there are a bunch of different ways to do them, and understanding the kinds that are out there might help you find the kind you like. So here they are: the seven ways people commonly write about television.*

The Craft model. In a lot of ways, this is the kind of criticism with which people are most familiar. It's focused on the quality of work that goes into a show — how strong is the directing, writing, acting, lighting, scoring, and so forth. The higher-brow the show is, the more Craft writing there is; nobody spends a lot of time writing about the direction on NCIS or The Big Bang Theory, even if they like those shows.

That doesn't mean there is no craft — it just means either writers are usually not interested in writing about it or they don't have the familiarity with the form to analyze it effectively. Craft writing probably requires the most background knowledge and the most experience, and it's where you're most likely to fall into a hole if you don't actually know which pieces of a show's quality are the result of direction, for instance, versus writing. To give you an example of Craft done well, Matt Zoller Seitz is a Craft writer, mostly. (Although, I should note, everyone I know who's a good writer incorporates elements of all these models. But Matt is a Craft guy.)

The Ethical model. It's almost a subspecies within the Craft model, but it deserves its own section, I think. The Ethical model is where writers address the sociological implications of how the show is made. In the reality setting, this is pretty obvious — were people subjected to terrible conditions, and so forth. But Ethical writing also tends to incorporate issues of gender, race, sexuality, politics, and so forth. Perpetuating stereotypes, representation behind and in front of the camera — this is where Ethical writing gets its strength. Alyssa Rosenberg does a lot of Ethical writing at Think Progress; she's probably the only writer I can think of where that's what she sees as her primary beat (perhaps unsurprisingly).

The Puzzle model. This is the writing that tries to uncover hidden meanings and explain symbolism. The idea is to take your sharp eye, as the writer, and note things that other people perhaps wouldn't notice. The absolute best Puzzle writing I'm aware of at the moment is Mad Style, the weekly column breaking down the costuming of Mad Men, found at the fashion site Tom and Lorenzo. Most costume commentary, other than this, is part of the Craft model — admiring the sheer beauty of wardrobe choices or the skill in matching them to the period. But Mad Style treats fashion like other writing treats any other kind of messaging and applies specialized knowledge to surface pieces of the storytelling that aren't obvious.

But whenever writers are pointing out callbacks, metaphors, symbolism, lines that have double meanings — that's all Puzzle stuff. In many, many episode recaps, you'll find bullet points at the end, some of which will be Puzzle content that doesn't fit anywhere else.

The Maker model. These are the pieces of writing that focus on the relationship between a show and its creator, in spite of the fact that lots of people's work go into the final product. It's kind of like auteur theory in film, although it tends to be a little more from-the-hip with television, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that anyone is sophisticated enough to be considered an auteur. These are things like Emily Nussbaum's marvelous New Yorker piece on Ryan Murphy, "Queer Eyes, Full Heart." There are makers who attract much more Maker writing than others — Shonda Rhimes, oddly enough, attracts less of it than you might expect, given her massive impact on the ABC lineup, while Lena Dunham attracts outrageous tons of it, despite her relatively small audience. (Aaron Sorkin gets more of it the more he complains about it, which is sweet justice for someone, but I'm not sure who.)

The Riff model. This is writing that sees television primarily as a jumping-off point for jokes. It's what Television Without Pity was when I worked there, it's what Previously.tv is, and it's what a lot of Vulture recaps are, including (for instance) Dave Holmes writing about American Idol.

The Vignette model. On a personal note, this is probably the model I use the most. Monday's piece about the Mad Men finale falls into this category; on a less serious note, so does the Scandal piece I wrote about how everyone in the world should dump Fitz. In the Vignette model, you look at a piece of television as a little story, and then you address a bunch of discussion questions. Can Don be saved? Is Megan misunderstood? Can Walter White turn his life around? Should Alicia Florrick get back together with her husband? These aren't really about the quality of the product, exactly, they're questions the product provokes. The episode, in this case, just exists — it's like an essay question on a test. "Discuss."

A lot of people are completely baffled by Vignette writing. This is where you get the "What are you talking about THESE ARE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!" stuff, as if you'd never talk about what the people in a story did unless it was true. The irony is that Vignette writing freaks people out, but it was the first literary analysis most of us ever learned: Why does this character lie? What should this person have done? What motivated Iago?

Vignette writing is also what animates just about everyone who likes writing about reality TV, because while there's a lot of craft involved in differentiating good reality from bad, that's not what most of the writing is about. Most of the writing, whether serious or funny, is about the people in the story and what their behavior says about the way people act. I don't remember ever having an incredibly fascinating conversation about the crafting of reality shows except with people who make them or appear on them, but I've had many, many great discussions about (for instance) the distinction between the kinds of men who win Survivor and the kinds of women who win, or why The Bachelor contestants act like being divorced is scandalous, or why you can't have alliances on The Amazing Race. Again, you just take the story as a story. Discuss.

The Service model. There are people who really do spend a lot of time just telling you what happened without comment, where the primary purpose of the piece is to fill you in if you missed it. This is basically a human taking the place of your DVR if you forgot to set it.

So there you have it: the seven ways to write about television. Of course, this is less a set of distinct areas with sharp boundaries and more a color wheel where one thing blends into another, because you'll usually see elements of all of them in a good and comprehensive piece of writing, but most of us are more interested in some of these kinds of writing than others, and it's good to have a sense of the landscape when you're looking for a home.

*These are ways, I should note, to write commentary. There is also a world of more traditional reporting, including profiles and breaking news, that's a separate issue entirely. That, in turn, is subdivided into business reporting (who's got a deal with which studio), show reporting (stories about production and creation), and the weird world of plot reporting (news stories about fictional characters — so-and-so will die, so-and-so will have an affair with so-and-so).

Something similar occurs in a series of panels showing Regina preparing for a meeting of mysterious importance. She applies makeup, dons earrings and primps before allowing herself to stare into the mirror with an expression that mingles regret and worry. Sequences like this, which encourage the reader to linger before turning the page, are useful, given The Property's pacing and plotting, which depend on a comedy of errors and assumptions — characters are forever refusing to divulge everything they know, causing other characters to leap to conclusions that cause still other characters to misconstrue what they've learned and so on and on until the great, final-act reckoning.

Said reckoning, appropriately enough, takes place in a cemetery on Zaduszki, the Polish day of the dead. In a moonlit graveyard, long-buried family secrets finally stand revealed amid the uncanny glow of hundreds of colored candles placed atop tombstones. Because, as the characters of this wryly funny and ultimately wrenching graphic novel come to learn, nothing about the past stays buried forever.

Read an excerpt of The Property

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Erdem Gunduz, the protester known as "The Standing Man" who held a six-hour silent vigil in Instanbul's Taksim Square in response to clashes between Turkish police and demonstrators, has inspired protesters to form "The Taksim Square Book Club" — a group of demonstrators, some masked, standing silently and reading books. An Al Jazeera slideshow shows a many protesters holding pointedly political books such as George Orwell's 1984 (which has recently enjoyed a massive surge in popularity in the U.S., following revelations about NSA surveillance.)

Jane Austen might be the new face on the 10 note, says the outgoing governor of the Bank of England. According to The Guardian, Sir Mervyn King told the Treasury select committee that the author of Pride and Prejudice is "quietly waiting in the wings." This comes after an outcry last month over the planned replacement of Elizabeth Fry, one of only two women (!) other than the queen ever to appear on a British banknote.

John Quincy Adams, sixth U.S. president, champion of the Treaty of Ghent and possessor of stern sideburns, was also a rather undistinguished poet. He once said, "Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I would have made myself a great poet." His ode to a Eurasian bullfinch is up for auction in July: "Not Solomon the wise, in all his glory / Bright bird of beauty, was array'd like thee / And thou like him shalt be renown'd in story - / Bird of the wise, the valiant and the free."

For The New Yorker, Ian Buruma writes about the Chinese poet Liao Yiwu, who is living in exile: "And so it is that this immensely gifted Chinese writer performs his poetic acts of mourning for the entertainment of audiences in Berlin and New York—an exotic "dissident" abroad, his voice to be heard everywhere except where it is most needed."

Barnes & Noble will stop manufacturing its own Nook tablets, the bookstore chain announced in a press release Tuesday. The tablets will soon be, ahem, "co-branded with yet to be announced third party manufacturers of consumer electronics products." Earlier this week, the company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $118.6 million, up from a loss of $56.9 million at the same time last year.

The spy novelist Alex Berenson gives his take on the Edward Snowden saga in an essay for The New York Times (his use of the phrase "huggle-muggle" alone makes it worth reading): "For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism — can anyone ever distinguish the two? — leaves his job and his beautiful girlfriend behind. He must tell the world the Panopticon has arrived. His masters vow to punish him, and he heads for Moscow in a desperate search for refuge. In reality he's found the world's most dangerous place to be a dissident, where power is a knife blade and a sprinkle of polonium. ... I wish I'd written it."

Outside, a man dressed in red and yellow robes is chanting and burning paper money to the accompaniment of traditional instruments. He looks like a monk, albeit one in a rather showy costume, though it turns out he, too, is an actor, though not from Mao's troupe.

A huge community meal is under way, as is traditional, cooked in a tent erected outside a housing complex, dwarfed by modern, six-story apartment blocks. Down the road, skyscrapers are going up. The funeral is transplanting old traditions into the middle of a modern Chinese community.

As the mourners take their places at the 10 tables, loaded down with dishes of chili-laden food, a small child defecates on the ground just feet away.

"We need a proper mourner because young people don't know how to cry anymore," explains Xu Xinwei, niece of the deceased man, Zhang Tujin. He was 67 years old and died of heart failure. A hardscrabble farmer, Zhang was hauling sacks of potatoes right up until the day before his death.

Now, his family sits at one table, wearing white — the color of mourning in China — sackcloth on their heads.

"We paid for a whole package for the funeral service," explains his daughter, Zhang Yingshu. "Because he worked hard his entire life, we definitely need to remember him."

As the meal winds down, people start to move into a large tent that has been erected especially for the occasion. They pull up green plastic stools and wait, the mood building to the kind of expectant tension in a big-screen cinema before the start of the latest blockbuster movie.

A Final, Dramatic and Tearful Farewell

As the ceremony starts, the strains of "The Internationale" ring out, and Zhang Tujin's family walks slowly forward to stand around his coffin. Now dressed in white satin, Dingding Mao begins her eulogy, her face serious despite her incongruous bouncy ponytails.

Enlarge image i

While a few states in the U.S. are debating mandatory labels for genetically modified foods, some African nations are considering a bigger question: Should farmers be allowed to plant genetically modified crops at all?

The question carries extra weight in countries like Uganda, where most people are farmers who depend on their own crops for food.

Enlarge image i

Lawmakers continue to wrangle over a bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration system. One provision in this bill would allow companies to import a lot more skilled workers. The tech industry has lobbied hard for this, despite fears among some American workers about the extra competition.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says the bill has American workers covered. "Employers will be given a chance to hire a temporary foreign worker when truly needed. But first, they'll be required to recruit Americans. No exceptions, no excuses," he said.

Still, making companies recruit Americans isn't the same as making them hire them.

If you talk to disgruntled tech workers much, sooner or later one of them is going to send you this video. It shows a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer at what looks like a seminar for clients in 2007. In the video, he's telling clients what to do when they want to sponsor one of their foreign workers for a permanent visa — a green card. The government requires employers to prove they looked for American workers first. So the companies have to advertise the job. But the lawyer tells them they don't have to advertise it too conspicuously.

"Our goal is, clearly, not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," the lawyer in the video says. He later adds, "We're going to find a place where ... we're complying with the law and hoping — and likely — not to find qualified and interested worker applicants."

Immigration law firms do this all the time: They show employers how to recruit Americans without actually having to hire them. This lawyer didn't want to talk to NPR, maybe because anti-visa activists have been sending this video around for years. It's Exhibit A in their argument that recruiting rules are a sham.

In the parts of the country where tech companies are prevalent, this kind of "faux recruiting" is common knowledge. But people in the industry quickly learn not to waste their time on certain job listings, says Orion Hughes, a software tester.

"A lot of us are aware of that ruse," he says.

Hughes and others avoid the listings with overly specific requirements, such as the number of years in "the job offered." That often means the employer just wants to make permanent a temporary foreign worker who's already in the job. And if you're stubborn enough to apply anyway, Hughes says that interview is going to be awkward.

"If you want to put yourself in that manager's shoes, it's an uncomfortable situation for them," he says. "They will [have a] kind of a sour facial expression, and they'll go from one question to the next. They are finding some reason to exclude you."

Employers usually go through these motions only when they're sponsoring a foreigner for a permanent visa. But now the Senate immigration bill would extend a similar requirement to temp workers: the foreigners on the H-1B visas which have become so common, and controversial, in lower-end tech jobs. It's a move that seems to ignore all the ill will that's been created by hopeless job interviews.

"No one is ever hired," says Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman from Connecticut.

Related Immigration Stories

U.S.

Visa Exchange Program Draws Scrutiny Under Immigration Bill

The economy "is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up," economist Lynn Franco predicted Tuesday as the Conference Board released its latest survey on consumer confidence.

The business research group, where Franco is director of economic indicators, said its index rose to a five-year high of 81.4 in June — up from May's 74.3. The index is based on surveys of Americans.

According to Franco, the index rose in large part because "consumers are considerably more positive about current business and labor market conditions than they were at the beginning of the year."

If consumers are feeling better about how things are going, that's good news for the economy because it suggests that in coming months Americans will be more willing to spend. That spending, in turn, could help spur job growth — and, potentially, create a "virtuous circle" in which stronger confidence boosts spending, which boosts hiring, which boosts confidence ... and so on.

There were other positive economic indicators released Tuesday, including:

— Word from the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development that sales of new homes rose 2.1 percent in May from April, and were up 29 percent from May 2012.

— Another report from the Census Bureau said orders for so-called durable goods (appliances, equipment and other long-lasting products) rose 3.6 percent in May from April.

Stocks are trading higher in New York following this news. As of 11 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up about 112 points (0.75 percent) from Monday's close.

A quick update for the many who seemed fascinated by Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni's cardboard bicycle and his bid to bring it to the world:

The online fundraiser we posted about earlier this month was launched Tuesday. Click here if you're interested in seeing what Gafni's Cardboard Technologies has going and what's promised — depending on how much you contribute ($1 to join; $50 for a miniature model of a bike; $290 for a limited edition, early production model of the bike itself).

Delivery depends, of course, on how well the fundraising effort goes. The goal is $2 million. As of early afternoon Tuesday, a little more than $10,000 had been collected. If all goes well and the company takes off, Gafni has said he hopes the bikes can be sold for about $20 each and that they will bring cheap, reliable transportation to some of the world's poorest nations.

If the bikes are eventually produced and delivered, you also might want to consider a cardboard helmet.

A quick update for the many who seemed fascinated by Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni's cardboard bicycle and his bid to bring it to the world:

The online fundraiser we posted about earlier this month was launched Tuesday. Click here if you're interested in seeing what Gafni's Cardboard Technologies has going and what's promised — depending on how much you contribute ($1 to join; $50 for a miniature model of a bike; $290 for a limited edition, early production model of the bike itself).

Delivery depends, of course, on how well the fundraising effort goes. The goal is $2 million. As of early afternoon Tuesday, a little more than $10,000 had been collected. If all goes well and the company takes off, Gafni has said he hopes the bikes can be sold for about $20 each and that they will bring cheap, reliable transportation to some of the world's poorest nations.

If the bikes are eventually produced and delivered, you also might want to consider a cardboard helmet.

Lawmakers continue to wrangle over a bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration system. One provision in this bill would allow companies to import a lot more skilled workers. The tech industry has lobbied hard for this, despite fears among some American workers about the extra competition.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says the bill has American workers covered. "Employers will be given a chance to hire a temporary foreign worker when truly needed. But first, they'll be required to recruit Americans. No exceptions, no excuses," he said.

Still, making companies recruit Americans isn't the same as making them hire them.

If you talk to disgruntled tech workers much, sooner or later one of them is going to send you this video. It shows a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer at what looks like a seminar for clients in 2007. In the video, he's telling clients what to do when they want to sponsor one of their foreign workers for a permanent visa — a green card. The government requires employers to prove they looked for American workers first. So the companies have to advertise the job. But the lawyer tells them they don't have to advertise it too conspicuously.

"Our goal is, clearly, not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," the lawyer in the video says. He later adds, "We're going to find a place where ... we're complying with the law and hoping — and likely — not to find qualified and interested worker applicants."

Immigration law firms do this all the time: They show employers how to recruit Americans without actually having to hire them. This lawyer didn't want to talk to NPR, maybe because anti-visa activists have been sending this video around for years. It's Exhibit A in their argument that recruiting rules are a sham.

In the parts of the country where tech companies are prevalent, this kind of "faux recruiting" is common knowledge. But people in the industry quickly learn not to waste their time on certain job listings, says Orion Hughes, a software tester.

"A lot of us are aware of that ruse," he says.

Hughes and others avoid the listings with overly specific requirements, such as the number of years in "the job offered." That often means the employer just wants to make permanent a temporary foreign worker who's already in the job. And if you're stubborn enough to apply anyway, Hughes says that interview is going to be awkward.

"If you want to put yourself in that manager's shoes, it's an uncomfortable situation for them," he says. "They will [have a] kind of a sour facial expression, and they'll go from one question to the next. They are finding some reason to exclude you."

Employers usually go through these motions only when they're sponsoring a foreigner for a permanent visa. But now the Senate immigration bill would extend a similar requirement to temp workers: the foreigners on the H-1B visas which have become so common, and controversial, in lower-end tech jobs. It's a move that seems to ignore all the ill will that's been created by hopeless job interviews.

"No one is ever hired," says Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman from Connecticut.

Related Immigration Stories

U.S.

Visa Exchange Program Draws Scrutiny Under Immigration Bill

Get recipes for: Spring Vegetable Tortellini Salad, Soba Noodles With Eggplant And Mango, Linguini And Spinach With Smoked Salmon, Avocado And Gingery Almond-Lime Dressing, Southeast Asian Shrimp And Rice Noodle Salad, Cold Ramen Noodle Salad

That "be on the lookout list" used to flag Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny of their tax-exemption applications?

It turns out it wasn't the only one the Internal Revenue Service had been using.

There were also other lists, covering a "broad spectrum" of categories and cases, according to a preliminary IRS report released Monday.

"Once we came to that conclusion, we took immediate action to suspend the use of these lists in the Exempt Organizations unit within IRS," said Danny Werfel, the new acting chief of the IRS, in a conference call with reporters.

Werfel said he hopes to be able to release more information about the sorts of other groups that were being flagged in the coming days, but that he could not until the documents were scrubbed of details that could identify groups by name, which privacy laws prohibit.

Werfel also said that his review so far hasn't found any evidence of unintentional wrongdoing by any IRS employee, nor any influence by entities outside the IRS in the actions of the exempt-organizations office in Cincinnati. "I'm not providing a definitive conclusion that no intentional wrongdoing occurred. What I'm suggesting is that based on the ongoing review to date, no evidence has yet surfaced," he said.

Werfel replaced former acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller last month after revelations that the IRS had pulled aside groups with "Tea Party," "patriot" or "9/12" in their names for extra scrutiny. That, combined with bureaucratic stumbles, forced some groups to wait years to get an answer on their applications. Nonprofits often seek IRS approval to make it easier to solicit donations as well as guarantee those donors that their names will be kept secret from the public.

In Monday's half-hour call, Werfel said the manager at every level in the organizational chart having to do with the exempt organizations had been replaced. "We believe that these individuals should no longer hold a position of public trust within IRS, and therefore we've replaced the leadership in those areas," he said.

For groups still awaiting an answer on their applications as 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations, Werfel said the IRS has created a new, fast-track process. This allows those waiting more than 120 days to fill out a form on which they promise not to engage primarily in politics and then start operating as a tax-exempt group.

Groups set up as social welfare organizations have always had that option available, rather than seeking formal approval from the IRS, Werfel pointed out. (Charities seeking 501(c)(3) status, which, unlike social welfare groups, can offer donors a deduction on their federal taxes, are required to seek pre-approval from the IRS.) If a subsequent audit shows too much politics or other legally impermissible activity, the IRS could then revoke that status — just as it can now.

Werfel is the sole witness scheduled to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the issue on Thursday. Both the House and the Senate have ongoing inquiries into the matter.

To date, leaked transcripts from House interviews of IRS Cincinnati employees portray an environment of unclear guidelines and uneven management, rather than a concerted, politically motivated effort.

Werfel said that he hopes a planned Treasury Department analysis of how tax-exempt organizations are reviewed will help create standardized guidelines in the future. "Clearly this issue associated with some ambiguity in the regulation that governs this area contributed in part to these problems," he said.

Werfel's assurances Monday, though, did not satisfy the IRS's leading inquisitor in the House, California Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee. "As investigations by Congress and the Justice Department are still ongoing, Mr. Werfel's assertion that he has found no evidence that anyone at IRS intentionally did anything wrong can only be called premature," Issa said in a statement Monday. "Only through continued cooperation with ongoing Congressional and Justice Department inquiries can IRS make a meaningful claim that it is trying to regain the trust of the American people."

Amid the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration and a general belt-tightening mood among many on Capitol Hill, the Pentagon is being asked to reduce its spending after a decade of increases.

Some argue that even with cutbacks, the U.S. spends far more than other countries on defense, and that the drones and special operations forces increasingly being used in the counterterrorism fight cost less than conventional military operations.

More From The Debate

On hearing the background, not the melody of a song

"Let's take 'Where Did Our Love Go' by The Supremes. This is a hypothetical example, but, to me, the most important part of that song is the tenor sax part in the background. So while everyone will sing the lead — 'Baby, baby where did our love go' — I'll start singing ... the saxophone part that's buried in the mix somewhere. I have no idea why [it is] that the small nuances of a song are more attractive to me than the actual song. [But] this definitely explains why I have zero pop sensibility."

On being mesmerized by albums on a turntable as a kid

"Baby sitters and my aunts used to say, 'He is the first child to never give us trouble. He doesn't scream; he doesn't even talk. All you have to do is get a stack of records, put them on the turntable and he'll literally just sit there and watch them turn.' After the third or fourth hour of it they may start to wonder and be like, 'OK, does he do anything else, or does he just do that?' Or on my index finger, I would take my dad's records and just spin them on my index finger and watched them twirl. I liked the way the logo looked in rotation."

Related NPR Stories

The Record

D'Angelo And Questlove Bare The Roots Of 'Voodoo'

Perhaps it's the combination of Sunday night's Mad Men finale and the flurry of Sopranos discussion that followed the death of James Gandolfini, but it's hard not to be struck by the explosion of writing about television that's occurred in the last 15 years or so, facilitated (of course) by the ability to go from rolling credits to publication in an hour (if necessary). After any major episode, there will be a flurry of commentary, and even after minor episodes of minor shows, there are write-ups here and there.

But while these pieces — whether you call them recaps, reviews, essays, commentaries, whatever — may look the same, there are a bunch of different ways to do them, and understanding the kinds that are out there might help you find the kind you like. So here they are: the seven ways people commonly write about television.*

The Craft model. In a lot of ways, this is the kind of criticism with which people are most familiar. It's focused on the quality of work that goes into a show — how strong is the directing, writing, acting, lighting, scoring, and so forth. The higher-brow the show is, the more Craft writing there is; nobody spends a lot of time writing about the direction on NCIS or The Big Bang Theory, even if they like those shows.

That doesn't mean there is no craft — it just means either writers are usually not interested in writing about it or they don't have the familiarity with the form to analyze it effectively. Craft writing probably requires the most background knowledge and the most experience, and it's where you're most likely to fall into a hole if you don't actually know which pieces of a show's quality are the result of direction, for instance, versus writing. To give you an example of Craft done well, Matt Zoller Seitz is a Craft writer, mostly. (Although, I should note, everyone I know who's a good writer incorporates elements of all these models. But Matt is a Craft guy.)

The Ethical model. It's almost a subspecies within the Craft model, but it deserves its own section, I think. The Ethical model is where writers address the sociological implications of how the show is made. In the reality setting, this is pretty obvious — were people subjected to terrible conditions, and so forth. But Ethical writing also tends to incorporate issues of gender, race, sexuality, politics, and so forth. Perpetuating stereotypes, representation behind and in front of the camera — this is where Ethical writing gets its strength. Alyssa Rosenberg does a lot of Ethical writing at Think Progress; she's probably the only writer I can think of where that's what she sees as her primary beat (perhaps unsurprisingly).

The Puzzle model. This is the writing that tries to uncover hidden meanings and explain symbolism. The idea is to take your sharp eye, as the writer, and note things that other people perhaps wouldn't notice. The absolute best Puzzle writing I'm aware of at the moment is Mad Style, the weekly column breaking down the costuming of Mad Men, found at the fashion site Tom and Lorenzo. Most costume commentary, other than this, is part of the Craft model — admiring the sheer beauty of wardrobe choices or the skill in matching them to the period. But Mad Style treats fashion like other writing treats any other kind of messaging and applies specialized knowledge to surface pieces of the storytelling that aren't obvious.

But whenever writers are pointing out callbacks, metaphors, symbolism, lines that have double meanings — that's all Puzzle stuff. In many, many episode recaps, you'll find bullet points at the end, some of which will be Puzzle content that doesn't fit anywhere else.

The Maker model. These are the pieces of writing that focus on the relationship between a show and its creator, in spite of the fact that lots of people's work go into the final product. It's kind of like auteur theory in film, although it tends to be a little more from-the-hip with television, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that anyone is sophisticated enough to be considered an auteur. These are things like Emily Nussbaum's marvelous New Yorker piece on Ryan Murphy, "Queer Eyes, Full Heart." There are makers who attract much more Maker writing than others — Shonda Rhimes, oddly enough, attracts less of it than you might expect, given her massive impact on the ABC lineup, while Lena Dunham attracts outrageous tons of it, despite her relatively small audience. (Aaron Sorkin gets more of it the more he complains about it, which is sweet justice for someone, but I'm not sure who.)

The Riff model. This is writing that sees television primarily as a jumping-off point for jokes. It's what Television Without Pity was when I worked there, it's what Previously.tv is, and it's what a lot of Vulture recaps are, including (for instance) Dave Holmes writing about American Idol.

The Vignette model. On a personal note, this is probably the model I use the most. Monday's piece about the Mad Men finale falls into this category; on a less serious note, so does the Scandal piece I wrote about how everyone in the world should dump Fitz. In the Vignette model, you look at a piece of television as a little story, and then you address a bunch of discussion questions. Can Don be saved? Is Megan misunderstood? Can Walter White turn his life around? Should Alicia Florrick get back together with her husband? These aren't really about the quality of the product, exactly, they're questions the product provokes. The episode, in this case, just exists — it's like an essay question on a test. "Discuss."

A lot of people are completely baffled by Vignette writing. This is where you get the "What are you talking about THESE ARE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!" stuff, as if you'd never talk about what the people in a story did unless it was true. The irony is that Vignette writing freaks people out, but it was the first literary analysis most of us ever learned: Why does this character lie? What should this person have done? What motivated Iago?

Vignette writing is also what animates just about everyone who likes writing about reality TV, because while there's a lot of craft involved in differentiating good reality from bad, that's not what most of the writing is about. Most of the writing, whether serious or funny, is about the people in the story and what their behavior says about the way people act. I don't remember ever having an incredibly fascinating conversation about the crafting of reality shows except with people who make them or appear on them, but I've had many, many great discussions about (for instance) the distinction between the kinds of men who win Survivor and the kinds of women who win, or why The Bachelor contestants act like being divorced is scandalous, or why you can't have alliances on The Amazing Race. Again, you just take the story as a story. Discuss.

The Service model. There are people who really do spend a lot of time just telling you what happened without comment, where the primary purpose of the piece is to fill you in if you missed it. This is basically a human taking the place of your DVR if you forgot to set it.

So there you have it: the seven ways to write about television. Of course, this is less a set of distinct areas with sharp boundaries and more a color wheel where one thing blends into another, because you'll usually see elements of all of them in a good and comprehensive piece of writing, but most of us are more interested in some of these kinds of writing than others, and it's good to have a sense of the landscape when you're looking for a home.

*These are ways, I should note, to write commentary. There is also a world of more traditional reporting, including profiles and breaking news, that's a separate issue entirely. That, in turn, is subdivided into business reporting (who's got a deal with which studio), show reporting (stories about production and creation), and the weird world of plot reporting (news stories about fictional characters — so-and-so will die, so-and-so will have an affair with so-and-so).