In The Talk of the Town: “The Ghostwriter”by Jeffrey Toobin.
Toobin introduces Pablo Fenjives, the man hired to ghostwrite O.J. Simpson’s book “If I Did It,” the hypothetical account of the Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murders. Luckily, HarperCollins, the imprint behind the project, pulled the plug. But Fenjives still thinks: “It’s going to be bigger than ever…like ‘Ulysses,’ except without the talent.”

On The Financial Page: “In Praise of Third Place” by James Surowiecki. I’m quickly becoming a fan of Surowiecki’s. His articles are always fresh and enlightening, and this week’s is no exception. He compares the boom of Sony and Microsoft’s gaming systems to the once dominant Nintendo’s, and then looks at their respective financial situations. Guess who’s making more?

“Killing Habeas Corpus” by Jeffrey Toobin should be an important article to dig into. The only problem is, despite the strong start, the piece quickly dulls, and we learn more about Arlen Spector than the importance of civil rights. A few interesting facts pulled from it:

1. President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland two weeks after the Confederate attack at Fort Sumter. He jailed Baltimore’s mayor and the chief of police, along with several members of the legislature, so they couldn’t vote to secede from the union.

2. Before President George W. Bush, the most recent suspension of habeas corpus came in 1871, when President Ulysses S. Grant sent troops to South Carolina to stop attacks by the Ku Klux Klan against newly emancipated black citizens.

But go read it for yourself. Maybe you have more patience than me.

“The Back Streets of Moscow” by Sergei Esenin, is a poem translated from the Russian poet by Paul Schmidt. Unfortunately, you can’t read this one online, but it’s a lulling poem, with plenty of rhyme.