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"There was one issue that was a giant box with a head painted on it, so when you put it on your shelf, it looks like you have a disembodied head on your shelf," says Eggers. "I think we wanted the journal to work on all those different levels — to surprise and delight on an object level and a design level, but also when you get into the stories, you get phenomenal new writing."

Big names like David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith and Michael Chabon have filled the pages alongside all manner of emerging voices, and the new anthology reflects that history. It begins with McSweeney's' mock letters section, easily its goofiest offering. Typical to the section is a letter from one Tom O'Donnell:

Dear McSweeney's,

I have a common name. According to some estimates, nearly 40 percent of men are named "Tom O'Donnell." ... In the time it took me to write this sentence, chances are you named at least one of your children "Tom O'Donnell."

This would all be fine if it were still Bible times, but today it's a problem. Why? Because it's basically impossible to Google myself.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, countless skirmishes and engaged in a decades-long standoff over Kashmir. But a new Google ad has warmed the cockles of subcontinental hearts, leading to an outpouring of goodwill on social media and newspaper websites.

The ad centers on two friends separated by Partition. That's the period in 1947 that led British India to be divided into two countries: Pakistan, a homeland for Muslims, and India, which is predominantly Hindu but officially secular.

Partition occupies a central place in the collective memory of the two nations. Millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were killed, and millions were uprooted from their homes. The legacy of that era clouds much of the relations between the two countries even today.

Enter Google.

In the ad, an old Indian man tells his granddaughter about his childhood friend Yusuf and their adventures in Lahore, which was then in British India. She then — well, watch the ad for yourself. It's a little over three minutes long — and not short on schmaltz (in a good way, of course).

There are about a dozen reasons I really wanted to love Alpha House, an original comedy series about four U.S. senators sharing a home on Capitol Hill. It premieres on Amazon — yes, Amazon — on Friday.

The biggest reason: often-underrated star John Goodman, playing a politician up for re-election who knows exactly what voters value in a legislator:

"Two undefeated seasons, 11 conference titles, two national championships," says Goodman's Gil John Biggs, who's coasted from a star basketball-coaching career right into a plum Senate seat. Biggs works hard to avoid hard work; there's no perk he's beneath taking, no contributor he won't schmooze, and he's breezed past token opponents in every election.

Until now.

"Guess who just announced he's running now?" Biggs' wife and adviser screeches in a later scene. "(Duke basketball coach) Digger Mancusi....You're in a real race now, darlin'."

As Biggs slams his phone against a nearby wall in frustration, it's obvious he's suddenly living his worst nightmare: An opponent with a better coaching record.

Biggs faces this horror while living in a house with three other Republican senators: a philandering Latino legislator from Florida, an ethically challenged African-American from Pennsylvania and a possibly closeted gay man from Nevada. The setup is inspired by an actual house owned by Democratic U.S. Rep. George Miller.

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China announced Friday that it was loosening its decades-old one-child policy and abolish its system of "re-education through labor" camps.

In order to have a second child, one parent would have to be an only child under the new rules. Previously, both of the parents had to be only children in order to have a second child.

The new birth policy is intended to promote "long-term balanced development of the population in China," according to the Communist Party announcement, which was reported by China's official Xinhua news agency.

China, the world's most populous country, introduced the one-child policy in the 1970s to combat a rise in population. But the policy has resulted in gender imbalance, with more men than women.

NPR's Frank Langfitt tells Morning Edition that the change means "another 10 million people would be able to have a second child."

But, he adds, "half would maybe do that — because, you know, raising a child in China is now very expensive. So not everybody really wants a second child, particularly in urban areas."

Frank notes that the policy has been unpopular for years, but there may be a more practical reason for the easing of rules: demographics.

"China's labor is peaking and state demographers have actually been talking to the central government for years begging them to change the policy and they say, 'We're going to head into a real labor shortage coming up because of the policy,' " Frank says.

Re-Education Camps

The Communist Party also said it would abolish "re-education through labor" camps in an effort to protect human rights.

Frank notes that this policy was first announced in January. He says the camps, which go back to the 1950s, are hated.

"They allow cops literally to just take people and put them away for 18 months in a labor camp with no charges, no lawyer, no judge, and the public has been really turning against this," he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep.

The party also said it would reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty "step by step."

China has already significantly reduced the number of people executed each year. As we told you on Weekend Edition Sunday, an estimated 3,000 people were put to death in China last year. That number is down from an average of 15,000 a year in the 1990s.

"The decision, approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on Tuesday, was seen as a detailed reform roadmap for China in the coming decades," Xinhua reported.

The party's document said China will also work to ban the extraction of confessions through torture and physical abuse.