* “The Chevrolet Bolt Is a Quiet Revolution: It makes electric vehicles plausible in a way no other car has.”

* Me on on Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, a book I didn’t get the first time I read it.

* “Fancy Dorms Aren’t The Main Reason Tuition Is Skyrocketing:” in public schools, it’s state-level cuts. In private schools, it’s tuition discounting: All those $40K – $60K prices are used to soak the rich families, while most students get discounts in some form.

* “Addressing Peak Energy Demand with the Tesla Powerpack,” or, consider the more direct headline: “Tesla Wins Massive Contract to Help Power the California Grid.”

* “Never the End: Jennifer Sears interviews Mary Gaitskill.” Her story collection Bad Behavior is still excellent; her novels strike one as over-long short stories.

* Merritt Tierce: “I Published My Debut Novel to Critical Acclaim—and Then I Promptly Went Broke: On the dark side of literary fame.” She wrote Love Me Back, and I wrote one of those positive reviews (which is at the link). This should be a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks that the conventional publishing industry will solve their financial problems.

* “The Thrill of Losing Money by Investing in a Manhattan Restaurant.” It is amazing to me that as many people as do go into restauranting.

* A theory of why people say or think they “hate” the media so much, which simultaneously implies that people love the media.

* “To the four policemen who beat me for checking the health of a sick man in their custody,” it is distressing that my first instinct is to add, “More of the usual” to this story (hat tip Chris Blattman).