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.