What is it about boxing that makes academic and political types all weak in the knees? We think it's because you have to, you know, be a man to be a boxer. Overeducated wonks envy boxing because they work their way up the chain through their pals, their daddies, their fraternity brothers. The man-to-man combat is something they have never done, something they could never handle, and therefore they opine breathlessly about it, wishing desperately to be a part of it while secretly shaking in their overpriced loafers.

The New Yorker's David Remnick — as author of the Muhammad Ali biography "King Of The World," no stranger to the sour science — weighs in this week on the apparent end of Mike Tyson's career. He uses words like "parlous," "Raskolnikov" and "simulacra." The "Talk of the Town" piece is meant to be a sad elegy to Iron Mike, though one gets the impression that if Remnick saw Tyson coming toward him on the street, he'd dial 9 and 1 on his Blackberry, and then be very, very ready.

Tyson's Corner [New Yorker]