In The Times, J Wortham studied Brittney Griner’s technique and admired “the way she lifts the ball over the rim and into the net as gently as if she were returning a lost child to a parent.” (Ann Davenport, Olmué, Chile, and Kate Kavanagh, Concord, Mass.) In a subsequent profile of the actress Jean Smart, J distilled Smart’s character in the show “Hacks”: “Deborah is a workaholic on the verge of bitter, someone who grew tired of being cut and so became a knife.” (Karen Kasnetz, Bedminster, N.J., and Donald Jurney, Amesbury, Mass.)
In The Arizona Republic, Ed Masley appraised a recent Rolling Stones concert and wrote that Mick Jagger’s physicality “invites you to imagine Mikhail Baryshnikov raised by a family of overcaffeinated roosters.” (Paul Welch, Phoenix, and Dan Olson, Spokane, Wash., among others)
In The Guardian, Jay Rayner visited Public House, a new restaurant in Paris, and savaged a lobster pie that was awfully light on lobster: “We push vegetables aside in desperate search of tail meat. It’s ‘Finding Nemo,’ only without a redemption arc.” (Laurence Mate, Champaign, Ill., and Todd Lowe, Simpsonville, Ky.)
And in The Boston Globe, Kevin Paul Dupont marveled at how sluggish and hapless several players with the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team were as they lost to the Boston Bruins in overtime: “Ditto for their goalie, backup-turned-starter Ilya Samsonov, who was so buttoned to his goal line as the play unfolded that it’s rumored it took three master tailors from Eastern Clothing until dawn to unstitch him from the ice, toss him in a suit bag, and drag him to the team bus.” (Dan Conti, Concord, Mass.)
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