Let's start with what promises to be a wedge issue. In WaPo, Tamar Haspal -- who calls lettuce "a vehicle to transport refrigerated water from farm to table" -- makes an impassioned argument that salad is wildly overrated. "It occupies precious crop acreage, requires fossil fuels to be shipped, refrigerated, around the world, and adds nothing but crunch to the plate." Can we really save the planet by skipping the salad? (I find it's a lot easier to eat less salad when I drink the dressing straight from the bottle.)

As of this morning, the apocalyptic installations at Dismaland include my stock portfolio. Spurred by China's market woes, the Dow sank by nearly 1,100 points before bungie-cording panicked investors back towards the black. Is the recent market turmoil a blip or the beginning of the dreaded down-cycle? I'm not sure, but if the market drops much more, we might have to add actual sharing to the sharing economy. In the meantime, don't sell.

+ For some explanation, here's The Economist with the causes and consequences of China's market crash, The New Yorker's James Surowiecki on the method in the the market's madness, and China's stock market crash explained in charts. (Or if you'd prefer, here's the market panic explained in one chart.)

+ And from The Verge: You know the market is in trouble when Tim Cook is emailing Jim Cramer. (At its lowest point, the Nasdaq plunge briefly triggered mandatory yacht sharing in Silicon Valley.)

"Faced with the evil of terrorism, there is a good, that of humanity. You are the incarnation of that." So said French President Francois Hollande during a ceremony in which he present three Americans and one Briton France's highest honor for thwarting a terrorist attack on a train.

+ The three Americans were initially seated in a different car. But they moved "because the WiFi wasn't so good."

+ "If you think about it too much, you won't." WaPo on the secret of extreme heroes.

+ And the NYT on the broader message of the latest terror attempt: "The sheer number of militant suspects combined with a widening field of potential targets have presented European officials with what they concede is a nearly insurmountable surveillance task."

Amazon has garnered an enormous share of the book market, and their "activities tend to reduce book prices, which is considered good for consumers." But hundreds of writers (including Philip Roth and V. S. Naipaul) are trying to convince the Department of Justice that -- regardless of the lower prices -- Amazon's monopoly is hurting consumers. From The New Yorker's Vauhini Vara: Is Amazon creating a cultural monopoly?

"The gene changes in the children could only be attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents." A small study at Mount Sinai hospital in New York strongly suggests that Holocaust survivors pass on trauma to their children's genes. (My parents -- both survivors -- will likely roll their eyes at this story, especially when I use it as an excuse for not calling when I got back from my family trip.)

ESPN's Wright Thompson with an excellent piece on New Orleans in the shadow of Katrina: Beyond the Breach. "With the air conditioner off for filming, the only noise in Steve Gleason's home is the breathing machine that keeps him alive. That's as good a place as any to start a Katrina story, with the wires and plugs and tubes strapped to the back of his wheelchair, a life-support apparatus doing the heavy lifting for one of the most fervently alive people the city has ever known."

"When we look at the first 15 years of the 21st century, the most defining moment in black America's relationship to its country isn't Election Day 2008; it's Hurricane Katrina. The events of the storm and its aftermath sparked a profound shift among black Americans toward racial pessimism that persists to today." Jamelle Bouie in Slate: Where Black Lives Matter really began.

+ FiveThirtyEight: Katrina washed away New Orleans's Black middle class.

According to a recent survey, a third of Americans have never interacted with their neighbors. (One assumes the other two-thirds are on Ashley Madison.)

"I'm sorry. I'm not going to take the test today." This is the age of data and measurement, and in education that means more and more standardized tests -- some to assess students, others to rate teachers. But when the average kid is taking 10 standardized tests a year, is it time to say enough? (Please remember to use a number 2 pencil when answering that question.)

I'm not sure anyone still believes the old adage, but just in case, NYT Upshot confirms that, No, you do not have to drink 8 glasses of water a day (which is good, because in California, we only have 7 glasses left).

There's a chance that Paris is facing a severe baguette shortage. Or maybe the French are just less interested in consuming bread. Either way, it's an interesting look at the impact of the labor laws.

+ The world's oldest message in a bottle has been found.

+ "His journey took him from Santa Monica, California, to Port Clyde, Maine, and he did it in 99 days, all by foot." Last week, Barclay Oudersluys completed a 3,200 mile Forrest Gump-inspired run. (Big deal. I just completed a two-week European vacation with my kids.)