Fatal Distraction, by Gene Weingarten

[prog]

Gene Weingarten is my favorite active print journalist because of features like this [warning: disturbing subject matter]. This story is as gripping and engaging a read as it is a hard one, dealing with a horrifying subject. (And it is very different from the violinist-in-the-subway feature he won the Pulitzer for last year.)

I was witness to his thinking about this topic out loud in one of his weekly washingtonpost.com chats some months ago, so I was able to take the subject in stride as I began the story. I still had the wind knocked literally knocked from me by the note it closes on. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing through.

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Can I strongly recommend indicating the content of the link beyond "features like this"? I'm reading, and I'm compelled because he's compelling, but given the choice I would have waited to read this until I was in a better mood. (I also advocate linking to single-page versions of articles.)

[prog.livejournal.com]

Sorry, man. I did wobble about this and figured that calling it "horrifying" in the next sentence would be enough, but that doesn't help if you've already clicked through.

Updated and will keep in mind for later.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Yeah--I realized after posting that you had indeed called it horrifying. I guess the thing is, there's horrifying, and then there's dead babies, which is another category entirely.