For this assignment I choose to write on The Slate's, The Pill Popper Next Door, and the Slate’s Pepper Goes to Washington. I would say there was a very light humored air to the first piece in slate that intrigued me to keep reading. As for the story about Pepper, that simply was so horrible I couldn’t help but finish. It was kind of like a fire, or a wreck were you want to stop looking, but you still find yourself glances in the rear view mirror. I thought they both did a great job in cutting straight to the point, and maintaining an easy to read delivery.
For example in the article about Pepper, the Dalmation who was found dead in a laboratory after having his chest cut open for illegal research. The writer does a great job of placing the story in reality when they say, “To fill the empty cages in Bethesda, Md., and elsewhere, the NSMR lobbied for the enactment of "pound seizure" laws, allowing the forcible appropriation for research of any unclaimed strays that would otherwise be put to death.” In this case the dog was missing, and according to these laws in Bethesda Maryland if your dog went unclaimed for a few days they had the right to cut him into pieces for science. Owning a dog myself I find it horrible that any law would dictate that an animal can be used for strange procedures.
I choose the second slate article, The Pill Popper Next Door, due to how funny it came across to me. Now maybe you have to be a girl, who has friends like these women to see all the humor I found in the article, but I thought the clean sharp delivery is what brought out the humor of this piece. For example when she says, “You've already had a direct discussion with your good friend about the fact that you aren't going to be her friendly, neighborhood narcotics supplier.” I know that some of her answered questions were supposed to be taken seriously but perhaps I found humor in the ridiculousness of the questions that no matter how she replied I would have laughed. But really, “friendly neighborhood narcotics supplier,” that’s just funny.
As for the format I found both piece's on Slate surprisingly easy to read. Usually when something is posted online I have to print it focus on the text. I thought the way Slate broke up the chunks of the article with ads, or space made it easier to scan over. I got a lot of the details for both articles early on which, makes it also easier to skim. Especially the question answer piece the way it was laid out read more like a dialogue then answers to questions asked weeks before.