It occurred to me the other night — as I dumped the ashes and replaced it with charcoal, marveling at how the cheap grill we bought four years ago is simultaneously holding up and starting to deteriorate, pulling the aluminum foil and trying not to get dirty and strategizing how I could light the entire grill on a single match — that this was a good way to cheer one’s self up.

When your day gets you down, light the briquets.

It works. Give it a try.

Things to read … because you should always give reading a try.

This really needs a better title, The meltdown doesn’t explain the magazine’s position on where we are on foreign policy at the moment.

Meanwhile, you wonder if CNN has had enough. What Obama did after speech on ISIS is just 1:15 of the president playing golf.

That puts the New York Times in an awkward position in A Terrorist Horror, Then Golf: Incongruity Fuels Obama Critics, apologizing thusly: “Aides said the golf game did not reflect the depth of his grief over Mr. Foley.”

A sorry state of affairs indeed.

I would say sign me up! Immersive journalism: What if you could experience a news event in 3D by using an Oculus Rift?:

If you’ve heard of the Oculus Rift at all, you probably think of it as the off-the-charts geeky, facemask-style VR headset that’s designed for playing 3D video games. And that’s true — but virtual reality has other applications as well, including potentially journalistic ones: USC fellow and documentary filmmaker Nonny de la Peña, for example, is creating immersive experiences that give participants an inside look at a news story, such as the war in Syria, or the military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

What better way to see the president’s golf game?

Next for Virtual Reality: Video, Without the Games:

Nearly all the hype around virtual reality — much of it fanned by Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, the headset maker — is about how the technology can be used for games.

Another intriguing use for virtual reality, one that has received scant attention until recently, is video. Imagine the possibilities of being able to swivel your head around within a movie, a news broadcast or a football game to see everything around a camera, not just what is in front.

These aren’t the static 360-degree images anyone can see on the Street View function of Google Maps, but rather live-action motion pictures, rendered in immersive 3-D on a virtual reality headset.

We’re on the verge of an intriguing way to produce and consume stories.

The Media and the Mob:

Those of us who admit that we were not there, and do not know what happened when Michael Brown was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, seem to be in the minority.

We all know what has happened since then — and it has been a complete disgrace by politicians, the media and mobs of rioters and looters. Despite all the people who act as if they know exactly what happened, nevertheless when the full facts come out, that can change everything.

[…]

Television people who show the home of the policeman involved, and give his name and address — knowing that he has already received death threats — are truly setting a new low. They seem to be trying to make themselves judge, jury and executioner.

Then there are the inevitable bullet counters asking, “Why did he shoot him six times?” This is the kind of thing people say when they are satisfied with talking points, and see no need to stop and think seriously about a life and death question. If you are not going to be serious about life and death, when will you be serious?

Meanwhile, here at home, Just 21 percent of Alabama high school graduates ready for college-level coursework in all subjects:

More of Alabama’s graduating high school seniors than ever before are taking the ACT college-entrance exam, according to a new report from ACT Inc.

But relatively few of the 37,895 class of 2014 graduates — from both public and private schools — who took the ACT are ready for college-level coursework in all subject areas, the report says.

The comments are about what you would expect, reasonably disappointing, so don’t bother. But the story is worth a read.