Take some time this weekend to delve a bit deeper and enjoy these long reads.
A reporter at large – Peter Boyer (The New York Times)
Rafael Perez’s testimony on police misconduct ignited the biggest scandal in the history of the L.A.P.D. Is it the real story?
Street Fighter II – An oral history – Matt Leone (Polygon)
An inside look at the creation and fallout of Capcom’s industry-defining fighting game, as told by those who were there.
Ghosts of the Tsunami – Richard Lloyd Parry (London Review of Books)
I met a priest in the north of Japan who exorcised the spirits of people who had drowned in the tsunami. The ghosts did not appear in large numbers until later in the year, but Reverend Kaneda’s first case of possession came to him after less than a fortnight.
Pope Francis: The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Mark Binelli (Rolling Stone)
Nearly every Wednesday in Rome, the faithful and the curious gather in St. Peter’s Square for a general audience with the pope. Since the election of the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio last March, attendance at papal events has tripled to 6.6 million. On a recent chilly morning in December, the thousands of amassed pilgrims appear to gleam in the sunlight, covering the square like a pixelated carpet. Maybe it’s all the smartphones raised to the heavens.
Seduced and Abandoned – Mark Seal (Vanity Fair)
The 14-year marriage of Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng ended abruptly last year, after the News Corp. chairman came to believe his third wife had been romantically involved with a former head of state and with a prominent Silicon Valley executive.
I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society – Kevin Roose (New York Magazine)
Recently, our nation’s financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they’re sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that “the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons.”
The Dark Power of Fraternities – Caitlin Flanagan (The Atlantic)
A yearlong investigation of Greek houses reveals their endemic, lurid, and sometimes tragic problems—and a sophisticated system for shifting the blame.
