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How do people deal with the torrent of information pouring down on us all? What sources can't they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts, and the literary world, to hear their answers. This is drawn from a conversation with Dan Savage, author of the syndicated sex advice column Savage Love and protagonist of the new MTV docu-series Savage U.
I'm one of those people where the last thing I do at night is close my laptop and the first thing I do in the morning is open my laptop. I start out reading Andrew Sullivan, Joe My God, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times and then I do something so 19th century: Walk onto my porch, pick up The New York Times and read everything I already read yesterday online but at greater length. I think Andy Borowitz tweeted the other day: Having a New York Times subscription is a short-term memory retention test of everything you read yesterday. That's definitely true for me.
For blogs, I read Blag Hag, Towleroad and Queerty, a gay blog that loves to beat the shit out of me. When I'm in the news, I avoid Queerty to keep my sanity. When I'm not in the news, I check it to find out who else they're beating the shit out of. I also read National Review's The Corner to see how the other half is devolving. People like Jonah Goldberg. Clearly, I have a masochistic streak that goes back to my childhood. Goldberg just gets the blood going and it makes you want to get out there and start swinging. Same goes for Kathryn Jean Lopez.