“Either, as Charlie says, he loved her so much that he had been willing to burn up a county because he thought it would make her happy. Or, as Tonya grew to believe, he loved her too much to let her be free while he went to prison alone.” Some like it hot. Like arson hot. From WaPo: Love and Fire.

+ New Yorker: “He was the most vexing kind of workaholic, the ascetic kind: hard-edged and self-punishing. Through most of his productive years, he seems to have subsisted largely on Diet Rite cola, matzoh, and prunes.” Cesar Chavez, Hunger Artist.

+ “If soldiers felt nothing about taking the life of another human being, that would be indicative of sociopathy.” Aeon: When soldiers kill in war, the secret shame and guilt they bring back home can destroy them.

+ The Year of the Pigskin: My hilarious, heartbreaking, triumphant season with the American Football League of China.

+ “She was our neighborhood bag lady, but she looked more like a retired headmistress, or a librarian exiled from her bookish hideaway.” She was also one of the most accomplished street photographers of her generation.