Story Lab: December 26, 2010 - January 1, 2011

Story pick: 'Art of the Steal'

My wife bought me an iPad for my birthday, and one of the first apps I downloaded was Instapaper, which I've been filling up with feature stories recommended on Twitter by Long Reads and Longform.org. It's been especially exciting this...

By J. Freedom du Lac  | December 30, 2010; 8:33 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
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How Billy Taylor sparked a love of jazz

Billy Taylor, the jazz evangelist and piano man who led the Kennedy Center's jazz programming for many years, died Tuesday night at 89. A D.C. native who went on to play with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie...

By Marc Fisher  | December 29, 2010; 4:14 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
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Story pick: 'The Courage of Jill Costello'

The Nov. 29 issue of Sports Illustrated featured on its cover a superlative Mike Vick piece by D.C. resident S.L. Price. But for me, the most memorable story in that edition was Chris Ballard's moving narrative about Jill Costello, a...

By J. Freedom du Lac  | December 29, 2010; 8:30 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
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Story pick: The Civil War goes social

Two things you wouldn't necessarily expect to intersect: The Civil War and Twitter. And yet, right there in my timeline last week, I saw an endorsement for a 150th anniversary Civil War project in which some of my Washington Post...

By J. Freedom du Lac  | December 28, 2010; 8:28 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
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Story pick: Guess who's coming to dinner

Restaurant critic goes out to eat. Restaurateur recognizes critic. Restaurateur doesn't care for critic's criticism; takes photo of critic, declines to seat critic, posts critic's photo online in an effort to out critic. That's the quick and dirty summary of...

By J. Freedom du Lac  | December 27, 2010; 9:37 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
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The most difficult gift returns you've ever made

Michael Rosenwald's Page One story today about Amazon.com's plan to let consumers block delivery of gifts from family and friends who routinely give you lousy presents raises all kinds of questions about possible hurt feelings and possible damage to...

By Marc Fisher  | December 26, 2010; 7:35 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
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