Late Bloomers: Why do we equate genius with precocity? Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth. A few years ago, an economist at the University of Chicago named David Galenson decided to find out whether this assumption about creativity was true. — The New Yorker

Anti-Americanism doesn’t apply to Harley-Davidsons. He’d had a rotten day at the office — the boss had barked at him, ordering him to get some mammoth project done within an impossible deadline. So he got aboard his pearl-white Harley-Davidson Street Glide, turned the ignition, gripped the throttle and revved the engine. On a Middle Eastern highway. — LA Times 

Out of the darkness: Adiga’s White Tiger rides to Booker victory against the odds. The feeling among the judges, Portillo said, was that “here was a book on the cutting edge, dealing with a different aspect of India, unfamiliar perhaps to many readers. What set it apart was its originality. The feeling was that this was new territory.” Portillo likened the novel to Macbeth. “It is about ambition realised through murder,” he said, “but with a delicious twist. Whereas Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are driven mad by their crime, the hero of this book is only driven mad by the fact that he hesitated and might not have committed his crime.” — The Guardian

My recession garden. Until a few years ago, I hadn’t given much thought to my food budget, beyond the basic “Do I have enough for fries?” But getting married and having a kid and buying a home with money you don’t technically possess will do wonders for your budgeting habits. I was brooding about this a few months back, when a revolutionary plan took shape: I needed to plant my very own recession garden. — Salon