Did an affair with a Russian agent push Overstock’s Patrick Byrne too far?

A trip to Batumi, Georgia.

On the death of a major league pitcher and its aftermath.

A notoriously brutal industry is slowly building supports for its workers.

A dispatch from the pandemic under Governor Kristi Noem.

How a self-taught linguist came to own an indigenous language.

Two ordinary Americans, inspired by right-wing extremism, plan to kidnap a cop.

Trying to make sense of a fragmented, disparate musical tradition.

Gulfport police killed a Black veteran. His family waits for answers.

Searching for home at a cowboy poetry convention in Elko, Nevada.

The city through the eyes of a four-year-old.

A trip to the “Olympics of hairdressing” with Team USA.

Can a cowboy become the greatest polo player of all time?

On Manson bloggers, murder fandom and being a sad, dark teen.

I first learned about cloud lovers in a police report concerning a man who received a blowjob from a young woman and went mad. The man — let's call him Carl (police reports have the names of suspects and victims redacted) — was in his 40s, and the woman, let's call her Lisa, was almost 18. The two first met in the fall of 2003 at a local TV station that was holding a contest to find the best video footage of Northwest clouds. According to the report, which was lost when I cleaned my messy desk in 2005 (I'm recalling all of this from an imperfect memory), Carl, who was married and well-to-do, fell in love with Lisa, whose family was not so well-off, upon seeing her for the first time. He had a videocassette in his hand; she had a videocassette in her hand. He showed his tape to the station's weatherman (sun, sky, clouds). She showed hers (clouds, sky, sun). During the contest, his eyes could not escape her beauty. After the contest, the impression she made on his mind intensified. That bewitching coin in the short story by Jorge Luis Borges, "The Zahir," comes to mind. If a person sees this coin only once, the memory of its image begins to more and more dominate his/her thoughts and dreams. Soon the coin becomes the mind's sole reality. Lisa's face was Carl's Zahir.

A season with the American Football League of China.

A dispatch from the Central African Republic.

Coming out in a country where that can get you killed.

On a preacher who counsels and ministers Major League umpires.

Reaching a certain age and an uncertain decision.

Navigating the bureaucratic welfare maze while raising a family.

A profile of “America’s most vulnerable comedian.”

How an honors student became a hired killer.

“I write this with a baseball bat by the bed.”