This week’s top 5 long reads

this week:

• Uncovering a 100-year love triangle.
• Missteps and mysteries in high-profile litigation.
• (Advanced) Coming out stories for all ages.
• How a gaming giant lost its way.
• The cat that tore the neighborhood apart.

Tim Prudente and Stokely Baksh | Baltimore Banner | May 8, 2024 | 2,467 words

I read a lot of books this week, but there weren’t many that really touched my heart. Frankly, I think I was hoping for something different.So it was easy to be swayed by this. baltimore banner Story: A story of “desire, scandal, and fortune” and ultimately a love triangle between a woman and a man. Tim Prudente and Stokely Baksh tell the story of how Joanna Meade, who lives in Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood, discovered a black can filled with juicy love letters inside a wall of her home while renovating her bathroom. Masu. All 67 letters were addressed to a woman named “Mrs. Martin.” RA Spaeth,” and all but one were postmarked in her 1920 or her 1921. Although the cursive writing and archaic language were difficult to read, Mead was quickly hooked. “It was like she was eavesdropping,” she tells her authors. She not only loved her neighbors; bannerstaff will decipher the communications and gather clues from city archives and across the internet to piece together the mystery. Why were these letters hidden in her house? Who was Mrs. Speth? Who is the man “R” writing the letter to her? As you scan envelopes, letters, photos, and newspaper articles, the readability is as if you are discovering each detail revealed in a newsroom. will improve. The premise of this story isn’t new, but it does remind me of a piece from our sister publication called Castle in the Sky, and there’s a lot to like here. There are secrets hidden in the old house waiting to be discovered. A community working together to uncover information (through his Nextdoor of all places). And even now, more than a century later, the words handwritten on delicate paper still have the power and sway. —CLR

Rachel Aviv | The New Yorker | May 13, 2024 | 13,339 words

The day Rachel Aviv’s article is posted is basically Christmas for me. Everything she writes feels like a gift. Aviv is the latest in an unparalleled catalog of features about Lucy, the British nurse who was found guilty last year of murdering seven young children and attempting to kill six others at the hospital where she worked. – Delves into Levy’s investigation in detail. Levy, who was demonized by the press and reviled by the public, becomes the fourth woman in British history to receive a life sentence. At her sentencing, her judge accused her of a “calculating and cynical child murder plot”. The problem, as Aviv shows in exacting detail, is that there is no evidence of such a campaign. That’s not an exaggeration. There is no evidence of malice or conduct on Letby’s part. The prosecution’s case is based almost entirely on the fact that Levy was at work when the baby died, but it’s not even clear whether the baby was murdered — whether the baby died of natural causes or medical treatment. It could have been the result of a mistake (not necessarily Levy’s death). Aviv’s article is a brilliant analysis of the failures within the system. Britain’s respected but overburdened National Health Service. Law enforcement wants a scapegoat. And the media sector is salivating over content about the so-called “Angel of Death.” (Spending time on social media, Compare side by side Previous report on Aviv’s story and Levy. This difference is shocking. ) Ultimately, Aviv does something that the systems she researched could never do. She gathers clear and convincing evidence to make her case. If you want to learn more about how she did this, check out this great interview she did with the Nieman Institute. —SD

Abby Tikel | McClain | May 6, 2024 | 1,846 words

When I read Abby Tikel’s essay, Mr. MacLean, I found joy in unexpected places. Mr. Tikel, who was assigned male at his birth, first tried to come out to his parents in 1964, at the age of 10. Shamed by her father for her so-called flaws as a man, she decides to learn how to live as a man. . She was married twice and had children. She had kept her true self hidden until one day, when she turned 66, she typed “transgender” into the Facebook search bar, fearing that her search history would find out. She never bothered to Google “transgender.” Shocked and inspired by the community of people she found online, she came out to her wife. (If she has tissues on hand, she should go get them now.) “But for me, telling her her truth took a weight off her shoulders.” she writes. “It took a lot of energy to spend a lifetime acting. The day I walked into her presence was like the sun shining for the first time.” Tichel’s wife was shocked after 18 years of marriage. However, it didn’t take long for the surprise to turn into loving support. Reading this piece shares Tikel’s joy at feeling truly accepted for the first time in her life, and how she feels by moving it forward through LGBTQI+ advocacy and education. You can enjoy the power. I wiped away her tears as I read about how her life and her outlook on life had changed. Now, I wake up every day looking forward to what’s to come. . . . Finally, I was able to be myself. ” There are many beautiful things about Tikel’s work, but the most beautiful of all is that we get to hear her story in her own words. —K.S.

Nick Zarzycki | North Korean defector | May 13, 2024 | 4,965 words

I’ve never played Magic: The Gathering. That’s not something nerds would protest about. There are enough 20-sided dice at home, so you can learn more. But this seems important to point out, just to ensure that you don’t need to know anything about his game of cards to enjoy Nick Zarzycki’s story.No matter how little knowledge you have magicYou know of that. It’s huge, and it’s been huge for 30 years. Pokemon wouldn’t exist without it magic. He single-handedly invented an entire genre of tabletop games where players build decks of cards for battle, and each card has a different effect. But this is much more than the story of a man named Richard Garfield and his era-defining creation. (Although that story is fascinating in itself.) It also tells how magic—Or, more precisely, magic‘s publisher quickly diverged from Garfield’s intentions. look, magic The deck is not fixed. New cards are released all the time. Garfield never wanted this to be a game that rewarded those who spent more money to get more powerful cards, but over time, that’s exactly what happened. By my count, he has over 27,000 unique cards that can be played in the game. Meanwhile, game publishers continually try to encourage players to use online platforms that prioritize microtransactions and take the human element out of games. Entification is all too common these days, and we’re used to it happening online. Zarzycki’s article, with its solid reporting and friendly tone, is ultimately a startling indictment of how things were done. magicpublishers were also able to run the same IRL. —PR

Andrea Sachs | Washington Post | May 9, 2024 | 2,882 words

Welcome to the story of Kitty Snows, who lived in Foggy Bottom. This may sound like the beginning of a fairy tale, but it involves considerably more lawyers and strongly worded letters than Andersen tended to feature. Kitty Snows is a cat who participated in the Blue Collar Cat Program, a program that rehomes untamable stray cats (too often seen on the streets). Kitty is adopted into the community of Snow’s Court in Foggy Bottom, where she belongs to “everyone and no one.” She was living in a box on the lawn when local residents Tom Curtis and Barbara Rohde found her with a wound on her nose, who took her to the vet. Her veterinarian deemed her unsuitable for her outside life and decided to move her to a luxury apartment in Rode. As Andrea Sachs points out, no one knows how she felt about Kitty moving out of her box and into a 14th-floor condo decorated with “impressionist paintings of Russian forests.” . . . [and a] A baby grand piano with its back to a towering window. (When two detectives show up at the door, they are informed that Kitty is “absent.”) What we know: The Mist Bottom Society is dissatisfied, and a fight begins over whether Kitty was stolen or rescued. It all comes down to what was done. The legal ramifications of this neighborhood dispute could make for some dry reading, but Sacks maintains a dry tone while still having fun conveying all the details. I’m sure Kitty Snows (no longer Foggy Bottom, but Watergate West) would agree, if she could comment. (Don’t worry, the reference to “Kittygate” is there.) —C.W.

audience award

Which recommendations attracted the most readers? Envelopes please: