Don't Bogart My Blog: Sunday Best: If our government were a TV show …

… what would happen next season?

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Sunday, September 30, 2018

NYTimes.com/Opinion »

The future of the Supreme Court hinges on a calendar entry from 1982. It rests on a dispute over who was or was not at a party. On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford testified at a Senate committee hearing against Brett Kavanaugh, whom she claims sexually assaulted her in high school.

Women are angry, they are showing up, they are pushing back, they are speaking out.

As this unfolds, the midterm elections loom. It could all be the plotline of the Netflix drama you binge-watched last weekend, but it's reality. The stakes are high and we're barreling toward the season finale — er, the 2020 elections. What do you think will happen next? — Alexandra March

The Reality-TV Case for Trump's Second Term

Chloe Cushman

By AMY CHOZICK

President Trump ends his statements with cliffhangers. You can't miss the next episode. You're riveted as tales of Russian hackers unfold, you have to catch a glimpse of Paul Manafort's ostrich jacket, you will yourself to forget Stormy Daniels's lewd descriptions of the man in the country's top job. The consequences are serious, but this is also peak TV (the ratings prove it). By Hollywood rules, shows that hold viewers rapt don't see a decline until season six. "By that logic, Mr. Trump would win re-election in 2020," Amy Chozick writes.

Why Coffee Will Kill You This Week and Extend Your Life the Next

Dr. Brian Wansink at the 2013 Discovery Vitality Summit in Johannesburg. Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

There's a word for cherry-picking data. It's called "p-hacking," and Dr. Brian Wansink's lab was known for it. But he may not be the only scientist who has engaged in this questionable method; there's a reason contradictory studies are ubiquitous.

Stop Perfecting Your Hobby. Stay Mediocre.

Izhar Cohen

By TIM WU

"I'm a runner," you say. "What are you training for?" someone asks. These days, you can't just do something for fun. You have to excel at it. You need to make it your side hustle. Tim Wu thinks there's a reason for this: "Our 'hobbies,' if that's even the word for them anymore, have become too serious, too demanding, too much an occasion to become anxious about whether you are really the person you claim to be."

Can Fever Cure Madness?

Jesse Jacobs

By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF

The man was certain others could hear his thoughts. He was under the impression that actors on television were trying to tell him something. He was thought to have paranoid schizophrenia, which was resistant to treatment, until a bone-marrow transplant completely and miraculously stabilized his mental health.

Sam's Last Book

Lilli Carré

By CURTIS SITTENFELD

"I knew my friend Samuel Park's handwriting well, its curves and spikes and looping lowercase g's and y's ... after 20 years of friendship, I was in a good position to decipher Sam's handwriting. The problem was that this was the last thing I wanted to do. Sam had died a few weeks earlier, and I was one of the people now trying to get his words right."

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