Traveling through the aftermath of a tragic fire. The romance that launched a thousand Supreme Court opinions. A poetic ode to a simple life well lived. Follow the trajectory of food writing. And we explore the hidden costs of particularly delicate surgical procedures. This week’s favorites handpicked by our editors.
Megan Greenwell | Wired | June 27, 2023 | 7,987 words
Megan Greenwell’s work features the best features of a full-length feature. A very strong opening and a very compelling story will captivate you and make you purposely read slowly to keep reading till the end. The piece, about a devastating fire that occurred in a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration that happened to house records owned by Greenwell’s grandfather, is nearly 8,000 words long, but the prose is It’s so sharp and cinematic that I wish it had been longer. “The fire at the National Personnel Records Center continued to burn out of control for two days before firefighters began extinguishing it,” she wrote. “Photos show the roof ablaze and the flames spreading across almost five acres. The steel beams that once supported the glass walls are crooked, like so many broken legs. Even if it weren’t for the US government, this would be a fascinating mystery: what and who started the fire, and the workers were seriously injured. How do you try to uncover valuable facts from the files you receive? Did Greenwell’s grandfather’s records survive the fire? Please take your time and let this story smolder. I’m certainly glad I did. —K.S.
kelly howley | new york | June 21, 2023 | 7,555 words
Last week, while I was reporting in Idaho, my husband sent me this article with the message, “Isn’t this by your favorite author?”Reader, here’s the answer. yes. Kelly Howley’s 2022 article about anti-abortion activist Marjorie Dannenfelser was a finalist for the National Magazine Award — one of several nominations for Howley’s work over the past few years. One of them — and I think this piece about Clarence and Ginny Thomas will be a finalist for the National Magazine Award. I am running for many accolades. In Dannenfelser, Howley shined a light on powerful people who aren’t household names, but this time he tackles two well-known political issues (yes, SCOTUS judges American political figure. She did it without accessing them, and instead used her uncanny ability to research the existing material on Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, gathering everything she needed to tell the story of their marriage and what wasn’t. has nothing. Consider the seemingly mundane detail in which Ginny tells the right-wing youth that her favorite amulet on the bracelet Clarence gave her is a pixie. Because to her husband, Howley says, she’s “some kind of pixie… some kind of troublemaker.” She convincingly positions Genie as a metaphor for the havoc wreaked on American democracy. Consider this beautifully constructed sentence. “They go on a lavish trip together, sponsored by an activist billionaire, but fail to report the gift together.” it’s only the first section! This work is timeless both in content and style. In other words, Fuck. —SD
Jeremy B. Jones | bitter southerner | June 6, 2023 | 1,580 words
I’ve never chosen an obituary for my top five, but Jeremy B. Jones’s ode to his grandfather deserves recognition. At just over 1,500 words, it’s not a very long work, but it’s a particularly poetic one, and it’s enough to get to know and respect Jones’s Papaw. Ray Harrell lived a simple life on a small plot of land in Fruitland, North Carolina. For many people, that won’t be enough. That was enough for Harrell. After all, as Jones writes, he had “a reliable tractor and a passionate woman.” It was a good life because he was grateful for what he had and was happy with his destiny. Jones says these quiet lives often pass unnoticed. Their lives make us who we are and keep the world moving. ” This is a small essay about a simple life, and I was very moved by it. —C.W.
Marian Bull | n+1 | June 15, 2023 | 3,978 words
Reviewing Rebecca Mae Johnson’s work, small fire, Marian Bull examines how culinary memoir began by injecting introspection and experience into recipes.What I liked about this work — other than the fact that it made me want to pick it up. small fireThis was also featured in our recent feature “Meals for One”. While Bull researches chef memoirs, she praises Johnson’s book as a book for home cooks, self-training enthusiasts. “Johnson reversed this format by writing a memoir of recipes rather than a ‘memoir’ of recipes,” she writes. Johnson sees cooking as translation, recipes as a form of performance, and for someone like me who sees recipes as a guide, this is comforting. ” How moving and affirming it is to be invited to take a seat at this generous table, where you have nothing to lose and everything to gain in translation. —K.S.
Eva Coffman | propublica and new yorker | June 26, 2023 | 8,601 words
It’s easy to think that “men trying to improve their status” is some kind of journalistic cheat code. Having written about them myself many years ago, I can assure you that this is not the case. There are many pitfalls. Tone is everything. Jokes are easy. Reservations are difficult. (Avoiding double meanings is no different.) Still, Eva Koffman’s surprising survey of the current state of penis enlargement surgery, focusing primarily on the issues surrounding the popular penuma implant, shows that every needle We have succeeded in threading the thread. She writes compassionately about her patients and does not deny the complex psychological circumstances that led them to undergo surgery. She talks about the doctors who popularized the procedure, whose practices sometimes seemed to be devoted entirely to 30-minute oil changes, and about the doctors who “worked extremely hard to correct the complications of penuma.” “I moved my practice from Philadelphia to an office down the street because I had such an active job there.” And speaking of unblinking, I saw her flicking a fly on the wall during the transplant. Don’t make a face sometimes. You may never hear the phrase “inside out” the same way again. This story may have drawn you in with its imagined sordidness, but it offers something much better than that: the truth. —PR
audience award
What did our readers like most this week? What children reveal is so do not have Okay.
joseph cox | Deputy | June 20, 2023 | 2,111 words
People looking for dirty deeds to be done include people committing acts of violence, including commissioning robberies for Bitcoin and organizing violence against vulnerable people deemed disrespectful or insulting. It doesn’t seem to go beyond Comm, which is a series of Discord communities that command.for Deputy, Joseph Cox infiltrated this vile, testosterone-fueled world of crime. —K.S.