“You never look past Thanksgiving,” said [Acton-Boxborough] coach Bill Maver. “Thanksgiving is very important in Massachusetts, if only because alumni come back and compare us to their teams.

Here are the discarded parts…

“The possible demise caused shock and dismay yesterday in Harvard Square, where shoppers took it as a wrenching sign of a rapidly changing world, where print news is dying and chain stores have taken over, even in a square once celebrated for its eclectic diversity. To many, Out of Town News had seemed an unmovable part of the Harvard Square experience, as likely to disappear as Harvard University’s wrought iron gates across the street.”

The question is not whether this is a good cover song, but whether it’s one of the greatest ever. I need not state my opinion.

First, the original Rihanna song…

And the cover by the Manic Street Preachers:

So what makes a good cover song?
Any songs you’d like to hear us play live? Let us know, and we’ll try to make that about to happen.

Let’s talk about branding.

“The baby boomers, who entered adulthood promising a lifetime of activism, have been a politically undistinguished generation. They produced two presidents, neither of whom lived up to his potential. They remained consumed by the culture war that divided their generation. They pass their political supremacy today having squandered the fat years and the golden opportunities.

…

“In the next few years, the nation’s wealth will either stagnate or shrink. The fiscal squeeze will grow severe. There will be fiercer struggles over scarce resources, starker divisions along factional lines. The challenge for the next president will be to cushion the pain of the current recession while at the same time trying to build a solid fiscal foundation so the country can thrive at some point in the future.

We’re probably entering a period, in other words, in which smart young liberals meet a stone-cold scarcity that they do not seem to recognize or have a plan for.

In an age of transition, the children are left to grapple with the burdens of their elders. ”

— David Brooks