Afternoon Bites: A Love Letter to Joan, Armistead Maupin Leaves, That One Guy Shot Himself, and more

Jessica Hopper wrote a love letter to Joan Didion for Rookie.

Armistead Maupin is leaving San Francisco for Santa Fe, but not before he and his husband go to Burning Man this summer. We learned more than expected from this announcement, needless to say.

Amelia Gray has a new story up at Vice.

Remember that guy who went hitchhiking for a memoir and then got shot by an anonymous driver? Yeah, he made that up.

Two strippers with somewhat uninspired names (“Thomas ‘Awesome’ Austin”? “London Steele”?) are coming forward to claim Channing Tatum stole their stories for Magic Mike, Steven Soderbergh’s new film. Things get catty in the quotes.

Apparently the price of alcohol at bars has gone way up in the last 30 years. Our editorial stance on this is “no duh.”