Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.
3. NFL mascots can perform at as many as ____________ appearances per year.
Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.
—Steven Johnson
Answers: SEVEN / FOUR / 500
Urban Developments
Our partner site CityLab explores the cities of the future and investigates the biggest ideas and issues facing city dwellers around the world. Gracie McKenzie shares today’s top stories:
New Orleans’ water infrastructure needs a lot of work. In the meantime, some residents are taking a new street-level approach to dealing with a deluge—flood-proof lawns.
“The [Amazon] HQ2 project has become the darling of the 24/7 business news cycle,” including right here. That’s part of why small, long-shot cities are throwing their hats in the ring.
Last weekend’s Black in Design conference featured presentations from some of the top names in design and social activism. Not bad for a student-led movement that began less than three years ago.
For more updates from the urban world, subscribe to CityLab’s daily newsletter.
Reader Response
Patricia DeWitt of Jacksonville, Florida, responds to Kurt Andersen’s September cover story, “How America Lost Its Mind”:
I read “How America Lost Its Mind” with interest, but I was frustrated by Kurt Andersen’s single concept of truth. For him, if faith is involved, it is not truth but “magical thinking.” He does not distinguish between the fundamentalist faithful and the faithful who seek insight and inspiration rather than prediction and certainty.
We have science-based structures to organize our physical lives and we have faith-based structures to organize our lives’ meaning. One cannot take the place of the other. The error of fundamentalism is in replacing science with religion. The opposite error is failing to understand that everyone lives by principles that cannot be “rationally” verified.
More reader comments, and Andersen’s response, here.
Verbs
Neck pillows decried, King Lear modernized, college funds borrowed, Dark Side foreshadowed.
Time of Your Life
Happy birthday to Perry’s granddaughter Aislinn (a year younger than Toy Story); to Bonnie (twice the age of hip-hop records); to Scott’s sister Patty (who was 23 when the Berlin Wall fell) and his friend Roxanne (twice the age of websites); to Juliana’s friend (twice the age of the euro); and to Tod’s daughter Evelyn, who at 12 is too young for the timeline, but just the right age to enroll in an Ivy League school.
From yesterday, happy birthday to Conchita’s husband, Ricardo (a year younger than sliced bread); to Abbie’s dad, Rob (twice the age of texting); to Susan (18 years older than the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights); and to Shari’s husband, John (the same age as televised presidential addresses).
And from Sunday, happy birthday from Dana to Douglas (a year younger than T-shirts); to Jennie’s niece Tristan (the same age as the basketball star Stephen Curry); to Cassandra (a year younger than Captain America); to Richard (the same age as the United Nations); and to Kathryn (a year younger than the Golden Gate Bridge).
Do you or a loved one have a birthday coming up? Sign up for a birthday shout-out here, and click here to explore the Timeline feature for yourself.
Meet The Atlantic Daily’s team here, and contact us here.
Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up here.