Outtakes & Articles

My piece for Shape magazine on the perils – and pluses – of changing an identity-defining trait.

 A fun piece I wrote for the "Talk of the Town" section of The New Yorker.

Reading and discussion of Sweet at Thurber House in Columbus, OH -- part of its Literary Picnic series.

My review of Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, The Last Great American Pool Hustler 

My interview with Nerve magazine.

While researching Sweet, I met with Tony Jebara, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. I arranged to see him after I learned that he and his research partner had created a "wearable computer" that, when aimed at a pool table, calculates the most appropriate shot for the pool player to take — and even shows that player exactly how to make the shot. It's a weird, creepy, interesting device. But does it ultimately taint the game of pool?

Ruth McGinnis, while not the first woman to play professional pool, was certainly among the most important and accomplished, an athlete ahead of her time in an exhilarating but often mentally punishing sport.