Three Things to Read

My headline literalism game is strong, people.

-- Terry Teachout on the development of the Western and why, contrary to the opinion of many, it really isn't dead.

-- If you see a squirrel three feet long that's got four different colors of fur -- including a two-foot tail -- you might have been over-served. Unless, of course, you live in Malabar, India, where you have actually spotted a shekru, or Malabar Giant Squirrel.

-- Back during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, an American woman named Elizabeth Swaney competed in the skiing halfpipe for the Hungarian team, since she had Hungarian grandparents. As one of the sort of modern "X-Games" kinds of sports, the halfpipe is supposed to feature some aerial acrobatics and tricks, but Swaney simply skied up and down one side of the pipe and then the other, coming away with the lowest score of the Games. Other halfpipe skiers welcomed and congratulated her on achieving a dream to be an Olympic athlete; commenters on Twitter and Instagram, as well as real world journalists whose own athletic achievements had never been cause for notice derided her. Last month California Sunday Magazine writer Davy Rothbart profiled Swaney and showed what a neat story she really has, as she works toward her next challenge: Competing on American Ninja Warrior. The CBS sports writer who said Swaney accomplished “the real American dream: Scamming the system to achieve your life goals while doing the absolute bare minimum to get there," meanwhile, co-hosts a podcast and has almost as many awards as Swaney has Olympic medals.