A Coder in Courierland, by transient0
One way of escaping corporate hard time: Bike courier. I always wanted to ditch office work and head out on a bike. Maybe this summer I'll finally take the plunge. (What are the odds on this guy being back in his cubicle in three years? Five years? I'd say, pretty good.)

A Perfect Fit: Wolfowitz at the World Bank
Jude Wanniski's minor classic on Wolfowitz @ the World Bank. Long time World Bank/IMF skeptic Wanniski argues Wolfowitz is the right guy for the job . . . because the job is inherently evil. (Not all World Bank loans are for useless factories, however. See my next pick, in which the governor of Nigeria's Lagos State wants a World Bank loan for 4000 buses.)

A Special Report from Lagos, Nigeria: 'People wake up angry at being alive in a society like this,' by John Vidal
"You can see what is happening ... the city is collapsing."

Coleman's book stirs plot
Bruce Anderson has been arguing entertainingly for years that the Judi Bari bombing was a domestic violence incident and the FBI wasn't involved. Here he reviews the new book that advances his theory of the case. (Personally, I think the FBI is bad enough when they're doing what they're supposed to; I never bought the FBI did it conspiracy theories.)

"The Book Stops Here," by Daniel H. Pink
The story behind Wikipedia, the coolest of the cool on the web.

Urban Emigrants: Outta Dodge, by Colin Berry, Special to SF Gate
On making the jump from SF Bohemia to Mendocino Bourgeois. Attention all aging urban hipsters! (1st of four part series. I looked forward to this every week while it was running.)

Murphy's Law Strikes Pulitzer Again
My list would probably only include pieces from Moscow's alternative weekly Exile if I didn't want to seem like a deep reader of diverse sources. Here editor Mark Ames exposes a Pulitzer winning mainstream journalist as "credulous provincial". Funny and true.

Keak da Mayor?
Mayor Brown's on the way out. So C'mon, Oakland - elect a real street soldier this time. Platform: "I would make it to where people have jobs, know what I mean? Nowadays, you get a job and they do a background check on you, and all of a sudden, they found out you had an arrest for lying to a police officer or some bunk shit like that." Can't argue with that.

Keep Pope Alive, What a Week, by Matt Taibbi
The New York Press columnist deals with the aftermath of outrage over a (poorly written) column making light of the Pope's illness and concludes with an inspired argument against the oppressive mass consensus enforced by worldwide media spectacles like the Pope's funeral. Viva freedom of speech!

I Am A Bum, by Tom Chartier
Best slacker manifesto ever. Actually published December 14, 2004. Whatever dude, close enough.