Weekend Reads

From NYT Magazine’s Robin Marantz Henig: “When Sandy Bem found out she had Alzheimer’s, she resolved that before the disease stole her mind, she would kill herself. The question was, when?”

+ “We’re designed to tolerate a certain amount of trauma and stress, but it’s the repetitious nature of the suicides that has become too much.” SF Mag’s Diana Kapp: Why Are Palo Alto’s Kids Killing Themselves?

+ “For years and years and years — 30, 40 years — I was anxious, and hypochondriacal, and an alcoholic, and many, many other things that made me different from other people.” From Rolling Stone: Dave Letterman, Happy at Last. (What’s my take on Dave Letterman? Put it this way, you’re reading a top ten list right now.)

+ Matthew Teague in Esquire: “The cancer was everywhere, and the parts of dying that nobody talks about were about to start. His best friend came to help out for a couple weeks. And he never left.”

+ LA Mag: The Rise and Fall of Bill Pettis, the Man With The Biggest Arms in the World.