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| [New Yorker covers love bikes.] |
Now that the magazine has opened all its articles to the public to read for free (for a short period), I thought I'd share some of my favorite bits that are vaguely interesting if you're interested in cities.
These are all the ones that jump out at me, and what I remember about them without going back and looking at them again.
[In chronological order.]
David Owen, Why Purell is Everywhere 3/4/2013
I guess it answers a question.
David Owen, Watch Where You Step in Florida 3/18/2013
All about Florida sinkholes, which are common there because of the unique geology. This story has some amazing details of all kinds of things coming up out of the ground! Worth a read if you're interested in Floridian eschatology, as I am.
William Finnegan, The Miner's Daughter 3/28/13
Long profile of an incredibly wealthy and secretive Australian mining heiress and magnate. You wonder where copper comes from?
Sean Wilsey, Open Water 4/22/13
Amazing true memoir of a guy who worked as a Venetian gonodlier. It has islands and gondolier codes and stuff. So cool.
Jennie Erin Smith, A State of Nature 4/22/13
OK, so there's this one tiny bit between Panama and Colombia where the roads in either direction don't go. It's kind of amazing that there's this gap. Read all about it. It sounds wild.
Douglas Preston, The El Dorado Machine 5/6/2013
History of people searching for "lost cities" in Central America. Very Indiana Jones. Great read.
Tad Friend, Crowded House 5/27/2013
This is a funny story about people trying a mythical great apartment in New York City that a scammer keeps promising people but never delivers on. It reads kinda like a Seinfeld episode, involving the apartment being rented out to multiple people at the same time.
Larissa MacFarquar, Last Call 6/24/13
Story of a Japanese Buddhist monk who specializes in talking to people who are about to kill themselves, which is a big thing in Japan. Poignant and illustrates something about our / Japan's individualized culture.
John McPhee, The Orange Trapper 7/1/2013
Great short memoir about a life long hobby collecting golf balls outside golf courses. Very well written and interesting to think about fences and edges and golf.
Calvin Tompkins, Ed Ruscha's L.A. 7/1/2013
A short bio piece about a famous L.A. artist, talks a lot about L.A. in the 70s and 80s and the state of the art scene. Ruscha is the one responsible for this hilarious painting...
John Seabrook, The Beach Builders 7/22/2013
About how much work it takes to rebuild the beaches destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, and whether we should even be rebuilding those towns any more. Kind of wistful look at Jersey shore towns.
Julian Rubinstein, Operation Easter 7/22/2013
This one was literally unbelievable. There are people who spend their lives stealing the eggs of endangered birds in the U.K. So wrong! So strange.
Sarah Stilman, Taken 8/12/2013
Civil forfeiture is when police take your stuff when they pull you over. It's straight up extortion and happens all the time in the South. Heartbreaking piece.
Ian Frazier, Walking Normally: The Facts 9/9/2013
The funniest thing on this list. Trust me, you're gonna laugh your ass off.
Rachel Aviv, The Imperial Presidency 9/9/2013
Article about the controversial president of NYU, who has been buying up swaths of Manhattan and opening up a branch in Dubai.
Andrew Marantz, The Unreality Star 9/16/2013
OK I didn't actually read this one, but it looks good about surveillance culture and paranoia.
Calvin Tompkins, A Sense of Place 9/23/2013
If you're into architecture, this is about the guy who did the African American museum in D.C.
Josh Eells, Night Club Royale 9/30/2013
Apparently there's a huge electronic dance music (EDM) scene in Las Vegas now, which is the only think keeping that city from blowing away in the wind.
Akash Kapur, Rush 10/14/2013
Fascinating story about a big highway being built through a tiny village in India. A lot changes! Learn about roads in India.
Ian Frazier, Bus Ride 4/14/2014
The most dangerous bus in New York is the B46, which Frazier rides from end to end. The quotes from the bus driver are amazing.
Burkhard Bilger, Auto Correct 11/25/2013
Short bit about the Google robo-car.
Calvin Trillin, Mozarella Story 12/2/2013
Lovely ode to an old store in Little Italy that sold handmade mozzarella for like forever. Really well written, of course.
Ian Johnson, In The Air 12/2/2013
Air pollution in China is amazing. Seriously crazy what their cities are like.
Emily Eakin, The Civilization Kit 12/23/2013
Guy in Missouri that is trying to build his own tractor (and all other machines) from scratch.
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Red Light 1/27/2014
All about traffic jam politics and Chris Christie. Pretty hard to believe that New Jersey politics revolves around traffic jams, but it does.
John Colapinto, The Real-Estate Artist 1/20/2014
Artist who is attempting to revive a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, one of the country's largest and poorest black ghettos. Really interesting if you're into Chicago.
Dana Goodyear, Death Dust 1/20/2014
About a plague of crazy disease-inducing dust in California's central valley, another incredibly poor part of the country. Really depressing and mysterious.
Paige Williams, Drop Dead, Detroit! 1/27/2014
Bio piece on this one right-wing asshole who has been in charge of the burbs north of Detroit for years, and made his living cordoning off the white suburbs from the black city. I didn't know this history, but it explains a lot.
Jon Lee Anderson, The Comandante's Canal 3/10/2014
The president of Nicaragua is trying to build a second canal and the Chinese are helping. Incredible, really.
Evan Osnos, Chemical Valley 4/7/2014
Another really poor place, West Virginia, and how deeply rooted the chemical industry is there. it's so hard to imagine people drinking the water and taking showers during the chemical spill, and the government doing nothing about it.
Ian Frazier, Blue Bloods 4/14/2014
Unbelievable stuff about horseshoe crabs. I didn't know anything about horseshoe crabs, which live in on Long Island. I guess I really like Ian Frazier.
Sarah Payne Stuart, Pilgrim Mothers 5/5/2014
A nice memoir about living in Concord, MA, and how strange the old puritan culture is there.
Dale Russakoff, Schooled 5/19/2014
Long and interesting history of school reform in Newark involving Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg. Really. Reforming schools seems almost impossible.
Sarah Stillman, Get Out of Jail Inc. 6/23/2014
For profit work programs is when courts take your money for life when you don't pay parking tickets. It's straight up extortion and happens all the time in the South. Heartbreaking piece.
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