“I’m gonna be like that lion the Romans had. They can just keep throwin’ stuff at me, you know? But I’ll be kickin’ their asses every time! In the end I’ll be sittin’ there, licking my paws!” The New Yorker’s David Remnick on the life and times of Marion Barry, who died over the weekend. “Give him this: Marion Barry was the most vivid local politician in the history of the District of Columbia.” And then some.

+ CityLab: The best reads on Marion Barry, D.C.’s Mayor for Life.