Rebecca Mead is amazing. She has written tons of good articles for the New Yorker (many of which I have been reading in that incredibly expensive but nevertheless great every-New-Yorker-ever-on-DVD set).

I just found out that a lot of Rebecca Mead's articles are available for free on her website.

Including one of the best NBA articles of recent years: her 2002 profile of Shaquille O'Neal called "A Man-child in Lotusland." It's a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what Shaquille O'Neal is really like. Promise me you'll read the whole thing, and I'll tell you how it ends right now--on the Skycoaster. (What's a Skycoaster?)

Injuries permitting, O'Neal will also be able to engage in one of his favorite activities going on the Skycoaster, an amusement-park ride in Orlando, which combines the sensations of hang gliding, bungee jumping, and skydiving. Riders are strapped into harnesses and hoisted to the top of a hundred-foot tower, where they pull a release cord that puts them into a pendulum swing, above an expanse that is the size of a football field, at about sixty miles an hour. The sensation is as close to flying as anyone who is not Superman or Michael Jordan is likely to experience, and O'Neal is fanatical about it.

"It's like a roller coaster, and it is dangerous if that cord breaks, you can die," O'Neal told me. "It's scary. It feels like you're actually flying. It's like you are falling from the top of a building, and someone grabs you and says, 'O.K., I ain't going to let you die.' And then they swing you whoosh. I go on it all the time." One evening, he flew for two hours, in his own, customized harness; and when other would-be Skycoasters asked for his autograph he offered instead to take them on a ride with him. So all evening astonished patrons stood in line to fly with Shaq, waiting for their chance to swoop through the air, the kind of thing that happens in dreams.

UPDATE: My dumb luck--this thing is actually newsworthy today, as O'Neal was just sworn in as a reserve cop.