He Was a Crook
An obituary for Richard Nixon.
An obituary for Richard Nixon.
Hunter S. Thompson Rolling Stone Jun 1994 10min Permalink
Death on America’s racetracks:
At 2:11 p.m., as two ambulances waited with motors running, 10 horses burst from the starting gate at Ruidoso Downs Race Track 6,900 feet up in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains.
Nineteen seconds later, under a brilliant blue sky, a national champion jockey named Jacky Martin lay sprawled in the furrowed dirt just past the finish line, paralyzed, his neck broken in three places. On the ground next to him, his frightened horse, leg broken and chest heaving, was minutes away from being euthanized on the track. For finishing fourth on this early September day last year, Jacky Martin got about $60 and possibly a lifetime tethered to a respirator.
Dara L. Miles, Griffin Palmer, Joe Drape, Walt Bogdanich New York Times Mar 2012 25min Permalink
Eighteen-year-old Justin Gaines disappears after a night at a bar.
Josh Green Atlanta Magazine Mar 2012 Permalink
A profile.
When we're introduced, I spend a long moment trying to conjugate the reality of James Brown's face, one I've contemplated as an album-cover totem since I was thirteen or fourteen: that impossible slant of jaw and cheekbone, that Pop Art slash of teeth, the unmistakable rage of impatience lurking in the eyes. It's a face drawn by Jack Kirby or Milton Caniff, that's for sure, a visage engineered for maximum impact at great distances, from back rows of auditoriums.
Jonathan Lethem Rolling Stone Jun 2006 50min Permalink
The architect of the Occupy movement on the state of “anti-globalization” activism at the turn of the twentieth century.
Over the past decade, activists in North America have been putting enormous creative energy into reinventing their groups’ own internal processes, to create viable models of what functioning direct democracy could actually look like. In this we’ve drawn particularly, as I’ve noted, on examples from outside the Western tradition, which almost invariably rely on some process of consensus finding, rather than majority vote. The result is a rich and growing panoply of organizational instruments—spokescouncils, affinity groups, facilitation tools, break-outs, fishbowls, blocking concerns, vibe-watchers and so on—all aimed at creating forms of democratic process that allow initiatives to rise from below and attain maximum effective solidarity, without stifling dissenting voices, creating leadership positions or compelling anyone to do anything which they have not freely agreed to do.
David Graeber New Left Review Jan 2002 20min Permalink
“My name is Jackie and I am addicted to waitressing.” An essay on waiting tables.
Jackie Kruszewski This Recording Mar 2012 10min Permalink
Richard Nixon, Elizabeth Taylor, Idi Amin: a collection of our favorite obits ever written. At Slate.
On Abbey Road studios, the Beatles, and modern record production.
Taylor Parkes The Quietus Mar 2012 20min Permalink
A decorated Iraq war veteran with PTSD kills his brother and himself after a high-speed chase near the Grand Canyon.
William Finnegan New Yorker Sep 2008 30min Permalink
Mary Ellen Johnson, a 48-year-old author, befriends a teenager convicted of murdering his parents.
Alan Prendergast Westword Mar 1998 30min Permalink
The making of the “five-thousand-page, five-volume book, known formally as the Dictionary of American Regional English and colloquially just as DARE”:
What joking names do you have for an alarm clock? For a toothpick? For a container for kitchen scraps? Or an indoor toilet? Or women’s underwear? When a woman divides her hair into three strands and twists them together, you say she is_____her hair? What words do you have to describe people’s legs if they’re noticeably bent, or uneven, or not right? What do you call the mark on the skin where somebody has sucked it hard and brought blood to the surface?
Simon Winchester Lapham's Quarterly Mar 2012 15min Permalink
How the website mastered “Social Publishing”:
To understand some of the principles underlying BuzzFeed’s strategy, he recommends reading The Individual in a Social World, a 1977 book by Stanley Milgram, who is known, among other things, for his experiments leading to the six degrees of separation theory. “When some cute kitten video goes viral,” says [Jonah] Peretti, “you know a Stanley Milgram experiment is happening thousands of times a day.”
Felix Gillette Businessweek Mar 2012 15min Permalink
Ed Rosenthal recounts the six days he got lost in Joshua Tree National Park.
Ed Rosenthal, Matthew Segal Los Angeles Mar 2012 15min Permalink
An investigation into Erin Brockovich and the lawsuits that made her famous.
Eric Umansky The New Republic Nov 2003 20min Permalink
"I remember lying on my side, dust everywhere, and I looked down and saw my arms were split open and squirting blood and I had just two bloody stumps above my knees," said Marine 1st Lt. James Byler, 26, who was blown up a few weeks before Mark Litynski. "My first coherent words to my Marines were, 'Hey! check my nuts!'
David Wood The Huffington Post Mar 2012 15min Permalink
In 1963, William Zantzinger was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Hattie Carroll and then immortalized – and somewhat defamed – by Bob Dylan. What’s he been up to since then?
Ian Frazier Mother Jones Nov 2004 15min Permalink
One woman’s ordeal with Texas’ new sonogram law.
Carolyn Jones The Texas Observer Mar 2012 10min Permalink
Joining the water company’s “flushermen” to tour London’s sewers.
Rose George London Review of Books May 2006 15min Permalink
The changing landscape of the Lower Ninth Ward in post-Katrina New Orleans:
There have been sightings of armadillos, coyotes, owls, hawks, falcons and even a four-foot alligator, drinking from a leaky fire hydrant. Rats have been less of a problem lately because of the stray cats and the birds of prey. But it’s not just animals that emerge from the weeds.
Nathaniel Rich New York Times Magazine Mar 2012 25min Permalink
An oral history of The Sopranos.
Sam Kashner Vanity Fair Mar 2012 35min Permalink
An Iowa dad’s surprisingly short path from commentor to screenwriter.
Jason Fagone Wired Mar 2012 20min Permalink
An investigation into slavery in Mauritania:
An estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery,” according to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian. If that’s not unbelievable enough, consider that Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. That happened in 1981, nearly 120 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. It wasn’t until five years ago, in 2007, that Mauritania passed a law that criminalized the act of owning another person. So far, only one case has been successfully prosecuted.
Edythe McNamee, John D. Sutter CNN Mar 2012 30min Permalink
The United States, which took a forceful stance on other Arab revolts, remained relatively passive in the face of the kingdom’s unrest and crackdown. To many who are familiar with the region, this came as no surprise: of all the Arab states that saw revolts last year, Bahrain is arguably the most closely tied to American strategic interests.
A report on Bahrain, the Arab Spring’s most ill-fated uprising.
Kelly McEvers Washington Monthly Mar 2012 50min Permalink
Jimmy McNulty, Mike Daisey, and the problems with skirting the system to get to the greater truth.
Aaron Bady The New Inquiry Mar 2012 10min Permalink
A report from the trial of Ivan Demjanjuk—a.k.a. “The Last Nazi”—who died on March 17.
Lawrence Douglas Harper's Mar 2012 Permalink