How do you eulogize a larger-than-life author who acknowledged his own greatness often throughout his life? It seems the answer is to write a lengthy, at times biting account of both his strengths and weaknesses. The New York Times does not hold back in its article on the death of Norman Mailer. The huge ego that the headline alludes to becomes Mailer's most prominently featured characteristic by the fifth paragraph. The article is colorful in its description but also loose--the reporter takes the liberty of describing Mailer without much recourse to quotes from those who knew him. Still, as the article progresses, it eventually looks more deeply at Mailer's work and details the full arc of his career.

Fish are portrayed with much more flattery than the deceased writer, in a Washington Post article headlined, "Japan's Sacred Bluefin, Loved Too Much." An article on the decreasing supply of tuna in Japan gives the fish red carpet treatment, including descriptions from a fishmonger that compare good tuna to Catherine Zeta-Jones. (I'm not sure that Zeta-Jones would be equally flattered to know that she is being held as a standard for "beauty and balanced plumpness" in tuna fish, but I'm sure the remark was intended well.)

A Boston Globe article also offers incongruous pairings in reporting on an art class offered to prison inmates. The article offers a glimpse inside the Suffolk County House of Correction as it describes one way inmates spend their time. It does not delve too deeply into describing individuals in the program, and I think a paragraph profile here or there would have made it a more complex story. Still, it skims the surface of an interesting story that shows art's influence in an unexpected place.