The humanity of “low-skill” workers, a missing child linked to a cult, snow monkeys in South Texas, a multi-million dollar mail order scam, and the unfortunate decline of a fish and chip shop. These are our editors’ favorite articles of the week.
Lana Hall | Hazlitt | July 12, 2023 | 3,210 words
Lana Hall made her living as a sex worker at a Toronto massage parlor, working three to six shifts a week from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. One night, while preparing for a particularly unpleasant last guest, Hall is humbled not by the man he has to shower with, but by the kindness of his co-worker who curls his hair before a dreaded appointment. became. Dear reader, this small gift has hurt me so deeply that I find myself sobbing in choking breaths. “At that moment, I felt so cared for that I could barely breathe,” Hall wrote. Hall talks about how people in power and society in general look down on people in “low-skill” jobs, and how people who have to work late into the night because of “the constant hunger of others” It cleverly reminds us that it is often the most adept at conflict. Deflection and Resolution – Ironically, this skill is often highly valued by those who work in sunlit ivory towers. Hall conveys with grace and nuance that the human nature of people in low-skill and high-skill occupations is often just as tough as day and night. —K.S.
Benjamin Hale Harpers | July 17, 2023 | 14,367 words
As soon as I finished writing this article, I sent it to two other magazine editors (both my parents). Child murder warning issuedI told them: but you must read thiss. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a work that surprised me this much. Except I didn’t read it, I devoured it.Benjamin Hale was so masterful in conveying a thread involving missing children, a cult, and perhaps a ghost in the wilds of Arkansas that I didn’t stand up, idly check social media, or do anything. It was anything While I read all 14,000 words of it. Hale plots a storyline that seems straight as an arrow, then quietly leads the reader down another path, and then another. The twists and revelations are sublime, but never flashy. I don’t want to say anything more because I risk giving away too much. With this trigger warning in mind, it suffices to say: must read this. —SD
Sarah Bird | Texas Monthly | July 23, 2023 | 5,493 words
In 1972, Pelka, a 10-year-old snow monkey at the center of Sarah Bird’s story, is banished from a sanctuary outside Kyoto to a ranch in Texas. Too much poop in the temple drove the entire Perka herd into exile, and 150 monkeys traded the snowy peaks for the sun’s dry soil. Sarah Bird heard about her new neighbors in Texas and she rushed to meet them. After all, they have history, and Byrd also grew up in Japan before moving to Texas. After bonding with her doped Pelka, the snow monkeys become an unexpected force in Bird’s life, but as the years pass, she loses track of them. Bird sets out to find them again and thinks of a mundane reunion, but the reality is much more nuanced. Her connection adds another layer to the already fascinating story of this strange migration and subsequent decades of snow monkey support in Texas. Yes, Perka has generations of Texan relatives. —C.W.
Rachel Brown Walrus | Walrus July 26, 2023 | 5,264 words
I hate stories about scams and scammers. As soon as I saw that, I couldn’t resist Rachel Brown’s investigative feature on copywriting scammer Patrice Runner. His teenage runner in Montreal was obsessed with the provocative copy in the mail-order ads, especially the one that resembled a handwritten note. Imagine that print is so persuasive that people send money in the mail asking for winning lottery numbers or the secret to fortune and wealth. Over the years, more than a million Canadians have been charmed by the runner, and he has earned $200 million. Reporter Rachel Brown sends a handwritten letter to Runner asking him to interview her about his work with Maria Duvall, an amateur psychic who claims to have found missing people and predicted election and stock market outcomes. I asked for it. Runner licensed Duvall’s likeness in Canada and the United States and sent out countless handwritten direct mail pieces about astrology readings, lottery numbers, and fortune telling. The runner used his earnings to live a lavish lifestyle that included heli-skiing and private school tuition for his children at $100,000 a year. Brown deftly unravels Runner’s shady plans and shell companies, elevating his case to a fascinating moral question. “Is deception itself a crime?” If you ask many victims of runners, they might say that they are more vulnerable than gullible, more cautious than curious. —K.S.
tom lamont | guardian | July 20, 2023 | 5,276 words
I first came across this article because of my own love of fish and chips, but also because I expected to see a lot of names of aggressively British eateries. In that regard, I was not disappointed. But some were unexpectedly tragic and unexpectedly resolute. Tom Lamont spent a year frequently visiting chippies around the UK, concentrating in East Newk, Fife, Scotland. This area is a coastal region jutting out from the land between Edinburgh and Dundee, and is by many accounts the world’s greatest provider of food. When he joined, supply chain issues and rising energy prices were already pushing the industry into dire straits. By the end of his year, things had deteriorated significantly. Still, Lamont’s elegy is full of love. It’s his love for the “paradoxical richness without vulgarity” that characterizes great fish and chips. Villagers have a love for the stalwart shops and shopkeepers of their community. Flyers and fishermen also love this tradition. “Fishing is a serious problem here,” Lamont wrote. “Fish and chips are a serious meal.” And as one store after another closes, from Lawford’s Fish His Bar to Jack Spratt’s Superior to Jackson’s Chippy, each meal weighs even more. It will increase. It’s a microcosm. It’s a metaphor. And Lamont’s work deftly unpacks it all so you can take it out and digest it in your own time. Preferably by the seaside. —PR
audience award
Get ready and let us introduce you to the works that our readers loved most this week.
Luc Rinaldi | MacLaine | July 13, 2023 | 6,259 words
Luc Rinaldi, a gamer himself, brings personal insight to the coverage of the family’s lawsuit. fortniteThe developer is Epic Games. It is a clever interweaving of liability law; fortnitehistory and powerful case studies. —C.W.