The Guiltless Pleasure
An ode to mayonnaise.
An ode to mayonnaise.
Rick Bragg Gourmet Nov 2010 10min Permalink
Gang-bang buffet tables, deeply earnest 'Letters to the Editor,' ghost-writing Kierkegaard references into model bios in Barely Legal, and how a half-decade of reviewing porn eroded the thin line between the author's alter egos and self.
Evan Wright LA Weekly Apr 2000 40min Permalink
On losing a mother and a marriage.
Cheryl Strayed The Sun Magazine Sep 2002 30min Permalink
A minute-by-minute account of one of the worst sailing disasters in American history.
Matthew Teague Smithsonian Jul 2017 25min Permalink
In the ’50s and ’60s, the Reverend Will Campbell marched with MLK Jr. and worked to desegregate the University of Mississippi. Later, broke, he took a job as Waylon Jennings’ roadie and occasional spiritual guru. Afterward, his ministry grew even stranger and more itinerant.
Lawrence Wright Rolling Stone Dec 1990 Permalink
“From this day forward, Ken doesn’t always have to look like the most basic frat bro ever to get a B- in econ. He can be complicated, mysterious—maybe even vegan. No more Mr. Nice Ken. (Actually, he’ll still be very, very nice.)”
Caity Weaver GQ Jun 2017 15min Permalink
In 1937, Harvard researchers began following the lives of 268 students. Year after year, the men were interviewed and given medical and psychological exams. The goal? Find a formula for happiness.
Joshua Wolf Shenk The Atlantic Jun 2009 45min Permalink
Blazers and bloodbath near the 6 train.
Michael Stone New York Nov 1986 40min Permalink
Watching the jazz singer in New York.
Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of Books Mar 1976 15min Permalink
“She lived with us for 56 years. She raised me and my siblings without pay. I was 11, a typical American kid, before I realized who she was.”
Alex Tizon The Atlantic May 2017 40min Permalink
A federal judge resents the harshness of mandatory drug sentences.
Eli Saslow Washington Post Jun 2015 20min Permalink
The underground culture of big waves and wild times in 1961 Malibu, and the gang of teenage boys who worshiped at the feet of the beach’s dark prince, surfing legend and grifter Miki Dora.
Sheila Weller Vanity Fair Aug 2006 25min Permalink
The first piece of gonzo journalism, annotated.
Hunter S. Thompson Scanlan's Monthly Jun 1970 35min Permalink
"I’m not familiar with books on style. My role in the revival of Strunk’s book was a fluke—just something I took on because I was not doing anything else at the time. It cost me a year out of my life, so little did I know about grammar."
E.B. White, Frank H. Crowther, George Plimpton The Paris Review Sep 1969 30min Permalink
On how a childhood spent in New York City’s tenements led a 15-year-old boy to be convicted of murder.
Jacob Riis The Atlantic Sep 1899 25min Permalink
An essay on the wounded woman.
Leslie Jamison VQR Apr 2014 1h15min Permalink
Best Article Arts History Food
Mince pie was once more American than the apple variety. It was also blamed for “bad health, murderous dreams, the downfall of Prohibition, and the decline of the white race,” among other things. Then it disappeared.
Cliff Doerksen Chicago Reader Dec 2009 15min Permalink
A profile of Candy Barr—porn star pioneer, burlesque legend, Texas folk hero.
Gary Cartwright Texas Monthly Dec 1976 40min Permalink
Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, who left Pro-Choice activism for born-again Christianity and a strange life of financial opportunism, died this week.
Joshua Prager Vanity Fair Feb 2013 20min Permalink
The story of Chyna’s final days.
Mitchell Sunderland Broadly Feb 2017 Permalink
An interview with Joan Didion.
Sheila Heti The Believer Feb 2012 15min Permalink
A trip to Râmnicu Vâlcea, a town of 120,000 where the primary (and lucrative) industry is Internet scams.
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee Wired Feb 2011 10min Permalink
Henry Heimlich saved untold choking victimes when he invented his maneuver in 1974. Since then, he’s searched in vain for another miracle treatment—pushing ethical boundaries along the way. Now at the end of his career, Heimlich has hired an investigator to find an anonymous critic working full-time to destroy his legacy.
Jason Zengerle The New Republic Apr 2007 25min Permalink
An investigation into the abuse and neglect of adults with disabilities in Illinois.
Michael J. Berens, Patricia Callahan Chicago Tribune Nov 2016 20min Permalink
On the shootings, and the response, in Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, and Dallas this summer.
Bryn Stole, Brandt Williams, Mitch Mitchell, Lexi Pandell Wired Nov 2016 20min Permalink