The dark side of the seafood industry. The morality of mortality. memory and belief. A flying cowboy lights up the western skies. The food service secret of tableside fire starters. This week’s issue has all that (and more!).
Ian Urbina | The New Yorker | October 9, 2023 | 9,573 words
Where does your seafood come from? Who caught and processed it? The more you read about overfishing, illegal industry practices, and terrible working conditions, the more it stinks. Each year, China catches more than 5 billion pounds of seafood through its ocean-going fleet, much of it squid. These ships sail around the world, often in areas where they are not authorized. Analysts believe the country disguises some of its vessels as fishing vessels, but they are actually part of a “maritime militia” monitoring the seas with the aim of gaining control of disputed waters. On board the ship, workers are abused and held against their will. Ian Urbina, who runs the Outlaw His Ocean Project, spent four years visiting ships in the fleet and investigating their conditions. (In order to contact the fishermen on the boat he was banned from boarding, he threw a plastic bottle “weighted down with rice containing pens, cigarettes, candy, and interview questions.”) Also irresponsible: They also tracked where the captured squid ended up. : First in factories in China, some employing workers in Xinjiang, and then in the very places we buy our seafood, like Costco and Safeway. This is an extensive report on how China became a fishing powerhouse, but Urbina is among those from Indonesia who joined one of these ships to give his family a better life. It also includes emotional and devastating stories of human workers. This is a great report that will make you think again about your next squid. —CLR
Hanif Abdulraqb | paris reviews | October 16, 2023 | 3,922 words
As I reflect on the past few months of this newsletter, I’ve found myself valuing writing that escapes, or rather escapes from, the assumptions of its genre. your the premise of the genre. Take the great Hanif Abdulraqib’s essay.When I first found my way there paris reviewsyou might notice a rubric that says “About Games” and see screenshots of video games. red dead redemption 2, and then decide whether to continue browsing. Is it okay to hate that decision? Probably not. But you also know that you were denying yourself something great without even realizing it. From the first sentence, “I don’t think I’m too invested in heaven,” the work resonates with a sharp melancholy that never leans into sadness or indulgence. When Abdul Raqib writes about the futility and helplessness of playing to save a soulmate, he is of course writing about something bigger, and he does not hesitate to draw the line for you: This is true It’s about salvation. About the sins of young people and the circumstances under which they are forgiven or not. About the love we offer to others instead of ourselves. About how to face our ever-shortening lives. “Spiritual” is a slippery word, used as it is to assuage our own discomfort with the unknowable, but there is no better word to apply it to this essay. Abdul Rakub’s spirit shines here, its entire spectrum diffracted through his 19th century avatar. That it’s doing it for “game-making” as some might put it flatly just proves my point. This is something special. —PR
Sally Tisdale | Harper’s Magazine | October 16, 2023 | 6,222 words
In my earliest memory, I was peeking under my Uncle Raymond’s bedroom door. He lives with me and my parents in his second bedroom in the duplex we all share. My mother gave me the mail and I flicked the envelope under the door, watching it spin on the parquet floor and disappear from view across the bright sunlight. I did. I’m not yet 5 years old. According to Sally Tisdale, this is an autobiographical memory, according to her fascinating article on memoirs and memories. harpers magazine. As a memoirist, Tisdale cherishes her memories, but this is not a romanticized depiction of the endless well of perfect memories that fuel her writing. She explores our own evolving identities, examining the science behind what we remember and how our memories change, changing shape and color in the liminal spaces of our brains. We wrestle with difficult questions and examine how what appears to be fact can become blurred. “It’s tempting to put today’s psychological truths in place of history. Memory is wet sand,” she writes. “What I want to question is slipperiness, uncertainty.” Is there anything more beautiful and human than searching for truth in the blurred spaces of our memories? —KS
Brad Rusler | Outside | October 18, 2023 | 10,300 words
Pilot outside the airport. strip bugger. fly boys. The recreational bush that appears in this work.His pilots have many names. But will these social media-savvy flyers draw new people into an exciting sport, or are they just “boys with expensive toys” clogging the skies and taking reckless risks? ? Dedicated to his mission of discovery, Brad Rusler braved terrifying maneuvers while riding in the passenger seat of an airplane that weighed as much as a golf cart. I love meeting big characters, and this work is full of them. All have varying amounts of facial hair, ranging from “thick soul patch decorations” to [a] chin” to “a ginger-brown beard that is not completely attached to the mustache area.” (His one lucky exception is his “handsome face with a smooth beard but a firm chin.”) One can’t help but be impressed by the various eloquences associated with beards. Culminating in a chaotic gathering at the evocatively named Dead Cow Lakebed in Nevada, this feature is a lot of fun. —C.W.
Adam Reiner | Eater | October 11, 2023 | 1,553 words
A short but wonderful piece by Adam Reiner Eater Works about food as entertainment are completely satisfying. Reiner worked for three years as a captain at Manhattan’s The Grill, where he cooked tableside dishes such as Dover Sole and fiery Bananas Foster. Reiner offers more than just the story of a rude patron seen from behind a gueridon. (A luxurious wagon filled with cooking ingredients and utensils.) He lets us taste the food as part of his performance at his restaurant and other restaurants. For example, Papi His Steak, a $1,000 Wagyu ribeye meat theater, has special effects to match. Taylor Swift in concert. “Steak even has its own designated entrance music that blares in the dining room to announce your arrival,” he writes. Reiner also reveals the dangers of performance and the very real anxiety that comes with it. For every Banana She Foster or Cherry Her Jubilee, there’s always the chance that the flambé will fail “like a book of matches in the rain.” Steak entrees and gorgeous flaming bananas aside, Reiner’s writing transports you over and over again in a story that’s less about the food and more about the nastiness of restaurant showmanship and his uneasy relationship. You’ll want to read it over and over again. —K.S.
audience award
What was your reader’s favorite this week? Drum roll, please!
“America doesn’t deserve me” Why black people are leaving America
Kate Linthicum | Los Angeles Times | October 10, 2023 | 2,576 words
The pandemic has caused many people to move to different locations. But as Kate Linthicome reports, Latin, Given the scale of “Blaxit” (the migration of black Americans around the world), this could be one of the largest patterns since the 1920s. But while Europe has long been the home of black American artists, it now stretches from Mexico to Ghana and encompasses all walks of life. This is what the pursuit of bliss looks like. —PR