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March Madness is in the air and sports mags are on the ball.
For its latest issue, Sports Illustrated constructed a nifty montage of college basketball's biggest on- and off-court stars for its cover photo. Can anyone find Dickie V in the crowd? Inside is a highly technical but interesting analysis on offensive and defensive efficiency - a newfangled stat that bracket-betters should pay attention to. It's worth reading if you consider yourself an amateur sports statistician. The issue also has a hilarious excerpt from a new book by Wall Street Journal sports columnist Sam Walker on his quest to win one of the toughest fantasy baseball leagues in the country by using his clubhouse access and insider contacts.
ESPN The Magazine has its own Final Four package but the editors seemed to think this week's lead feature should be on something most agree we've heard enough about - Barry Bonds and steroids. The mag's NCAA Tournament section includes a lot of fluff about this season's best senior and charts on some of the field's underdogs. For those into women's sports, there's a solid but short profile of Cappie Pondexter, a star of the women's team at Final Four-bound Rutgers. In the wake of the NBA's new dress code, Chris Paul and his fellow NBA ballers show readers exactly what it takes to have style off the court.
You'll either love Sporting News or hate it.
The book is pretty much the bible for the sports lunatic. You'll read SI if you want incredible photos or evocative writing; you'll read Sporting News if you want to see how well the Connecticut Men's basketball team plays on the road in March. The writing in this issue of the Sporting News isn't as given to March Mad ness fawning fluffery, al though its ed itors are happy to invent ri valries or rela tionships, such as the this week's cover depicting some alleged rivalry between NBA megastars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade that doesnt really exist. If you need to know anything - and by that, we mean pretty much anything of consequence - about the NCAA basketball tournament, the issue is for you.
Fortune promises to reveal the secrets of highly productive people, when in reality they all seem to adhere to the same formula: work hard, sleep little, consume lots of caffeine. Brett Yormark, chief executive of Nets Basketball, sleeps three hours a night and gets up at 3:35 a.m. He runs, swims, showers and shaves, and is in his first meeting by 7:35 a.m.-show off. Other high achievers also tell what they do and don't do to get the job done: U.S. Senator John McCain keeps his appointments on notecards in his pocket; Bond king Bill Gross stands on his head to generate ideas; and Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz starts his day with - surprise - a strong cup of joe.
As if this city weren't jaded enough about love and marriage, New York's latest issue contains all the hope and optimism of a set of divorce papers. An autopsy of Ron Perelman and Ellen Barkin's acrimonious split mostly rehashes published reports without ever resolving conflicting accounts over the size of the divorce settlement. Perelman's camp says Barkin walked away with $60 million, but a Barkin ally says the real amount is closer to $20 million. Worse, the mag claims that prenups, which were once the purview of the rich, are now trickling down to young professionals who want to "hedge their bets." Isn't it romantic?
The New Yorker has a big takeout on Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly that deserves kudos for its objectivity and restraint considering his disdain for the magazine. Author Nicholas Lemann suggests the continued success of "The O'Reilly Factor" depends on his ability to attract "liberal foils" - a task that is becoming increas ingly difficult for his bookers. Le mann also ar gues that while his popularity has proba bly peaked, O'Reilly has also left a "lasting stamp on cable news." (Fox News is a division of News Corp., which also owns The Post.) Meanwhile, celebrated writer Calvin Trillin offers a touching tribute to his deceased wife Alice that is better than any couple's therapy by showing us a truly great marriage.
Time is back with another one of its "Gee whiz, kids these days!" stories on whether they are "too wired" because they like to engage in some combination of Web surfing, talking on their cell phones, watching TV, playing videogames and listening to music. The answer: Kids will probably be better prepared for the multitasking workplace but a little less socially adept. The newsweekly poses a better question to a cross-section experts when it asks them if the Iraq war was worth it. The answers are varied and occasionally surprising. Time also investigates whether the death of 15 civilians in Iraq in November was the result of a Marine rampage, rather than the explosion of a roadside bomb as the U.S. military claims.
We're not sure what Newsweek was thinking with a cover story that declares "Freud Is Not Dead." Actually, he is and has been for 150 years, which begs the question of why the newsweekly thinks his legacy needs revisiting now. The reason seems to be that he was fascinating even though many of his ideas will probably be replaced by drugs and newer therapies. Another figure who also refuses to go away peacefully is actress Sharon Stone, who reprises her role as Catherine Tramell, the ice-pick wielding bisexual, in "Basic Instinct 2." Newsweek describes the sequel as "unforgettable" for pretty much all the wrong reasons and compares to box-office embarrassment "Showgirls."
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