Swartz, who's been a staff writer for The New Yorker (from 1997-99), just won the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, for a Texas Monthly story: "Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!" ("Like a lot of old-fashioned Texans, Alvin Berry is the kind of man who bears the pain and indignities of life with good grace....")

Swartz's piece is about tort reform. Semi-related: Last month I served for nearly a week on a medical malpractice case, and we sided with the plaintiff. Make of that what you will. And please, for the love of feet, warm up before you exercise, won't you? Don't, I repeat, don't, snap that essential Achilles tendon. Especially if you're a guy (it happens most often to older men—older meaning older than 30, according to Dr. X the expert witness). Trust me, please. If you'd seen what I've seen, you'd be stretching the thing 24/7.