In American Nerd: The Story of My People, Brooklyn-based writer Benjamin Nugent combines a peripatetic history of the word “nerd” with accounts of the various kinds of people it is most often used to describe. The book includes an autobiographical dose; one section called “My Credentials” details Nugent’s early 90s adolescent exodus from d20-style probabilities. On page 3, Nugent fittingly discloses: “when I was eleven, I had a rich fantasy life in which I carried......

Kanye and Jane Land at MSG There was no avoiding Kanye's epic and ego boosting Glow in the Dark Tour as it rolled through New York this week. The hip hop space opera was one for the ages, walking the fine line between Spinal Tap and R. Kelly in terms of the laughing at/with ridiculousness; it included campy stage props, dry ice, and holographic strippers. The concept's absurdity was breathtaking: Kanye crash lands alone on......