The British and Irish have coined some fabulous terms to describe nature and landscrape. “Doofers” is the Scots’ term for horse-shit; “clinkerbell” means icicle in Hampshire.

The everyday violence of some urban neighburhoods in America takes its own emotional toll.

Fast food used to be a transitional, temporary work. In Creston, Iowa, it has become a career.

Tracing the 3,339 miles the Canadian ran in 1980, on one good leg and one prosthetic limb.

Playing beer pong with David Axelrod—and other scenes from the lives of young, high-profile aides in the Obama White House.

Karaoke renditions of ‘My Way’ have led to murders in the Phillipines.

It took a desperate screenwriter to find Max Mermelstein, Miami’s former coke overlord, after twenty-five years in hiding.

In 1920, Harvard University officials suspected that some students were gay. So they kicked them all out.

[Part 1 of 2] The story behind this spring’s spate of retributive murders in Southwest D.C.

In 2007, Harrah’s made 5.6% of its total Las Vegas revenue off of a single person: Terrance Watanabe.

An email dialogue between David Gates and Jonathan Lethem on writing fiction in the age of online experiences.

A mission in Baghdad to let a photojournalist get a shot of an insurgent corpse ends up getting a Marine killed.

A profile of Rahm Emanuel, written during his first congressional campaign in Illinois. Emanuel was running to fill the seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich.

On a book of photographs shot by Leni Riefenstahl in the 1950s and 1960s depicting an African tribe.

How virtual worlds like Ultima Online form economies and the sellers who make a living in digital goods.

On the mysterious life story of blues icon Blind Willie Johnson and a half-century of attempts to fill in the blanks.

A veteran black Metro columnist, adrift in a rapidly shifting D.C., rankles an incoming generation of gentrificationists.

A reporter heads to Istanbul, where Iverson is playing minor league hoops in a 3,200-seat arena and hanging out at T.G.I. Friday’s.

On the utter brutality of life in the tent cities, one year after the earthquake.

The diary of a Scranton, PA National Guardsmen tasked with guarding the highest profile prisoner in U.S history: a surprisingly amiable Saddam Hussein.

J.D. Salinger on the beaches on D-Day, marching through concentration camps, and in liberated Paris.

Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the founder of a barbaric Haitian paramilitary group, vanished from Port-au-Prince and resurfaced as a real estate agent in Queens.

In an upscale Denver condo, twice-a-month they convened from Thursday to Sunday with 95 percent-pure Shabu.

A roundtable on sexism in Hollywood and comedy.

Park Service and Forest Service employees face sexual harassment and assault in America’s wild places.