In this week’s issue:
- A heartwarming story of lost connections found again.
- Veterans who put an end to mass shootings.
- 9 Perspectives on the Prescription Drug Adderall.
- Eider duck keepers.
- Pilgrimage to Moby Dick.
Amelia Tate | Guardian | March 16, 2024 | 3,828 words
Imagine an encounter that changes your life, a random encounter in which you find yourself. Amelia Tait’s fun piece about four couples she met by chance was exactly what I needed. Tate’s story is as surprising as it is entertaining. Did you know that advertising to find things you couldn’t connect to goes back at least 300 years? “He may not have been the first, but Samuel Reeves did it in 1709. ,” Tate wrote. “Reeves, who was writing for the British periodical Tatler, attracted the attention of a woman he rescued from a boat. He hopes[d] I wanted to know where I could wait for her to clarify her concerns,’ he said, providing an address where she could be reached. ” Tate introduces her four couples who managed to reconnect and start long-term relationships despite the failures, turns, and randomness of her life. Each is worthy of a Hallmark movie, but when combined, these stories are more than just a series of encounters. The film is as much about the thrill of possibility as it is about the couple themselves. It’s about taking a risk and starting a conversation. As we hide behind our mobile devices and become visible, conversations become less and less common. After all, if your significant other is locked to his phone, you can’t lock his eyes. —K.S.
2. Hero
Dan Zak | Washington Post | March 16, 2024 | 13,358 words
On November 19, 2022, a gunman entered a bizarre Colorado Springs nightclub and fired approximately 60 shots in 38 seconds. Five people died. There could have been many more victims if it weren’t for Army veteran Richard Fierro, who helped subdue the gunman — that’s the headline of Dan Zak’s profile. However, Zack is troubled by the idea of a “hero,” and rightly so. Fiyero is not comfortable wearing a cloak. He poured in adrenaline, training, and even personal trauma when he threw himself at the shooter and hit him in the head multiple times with his handgun. “The battle was endless and graceless. It was nothing like the movies,” Zach writes. I held my breath while reading this sequence. It’s all sound, instinct, movement, and it’s raw, brutal, and disturbing. Zach praised Fierro’s accomplishments, saying: thank you for having you, misses the point: no one should ever be in Fiyero’s shoes. No one should risk their lives to stop mass shootings. And no one should have a hard time dealing with that experience. Fierro now does so with his entire family. His loved ones were in the club during the massacre. His future son-in-law was killed. As strangers toasted him at a New York celebration, Fierro asked, “What’s it like with his whole family dealing with his PTSD?” Zach has a more pointed point on the next question. “How will you survive?” that? ” —SD
3. Club Med
various writers | Pioneer Works Broadcast | March 21, 2024 | 11,738 words
I have never taken Adderall. Years ago, some of my college friends adopted it to help with their studies. I thought it was better than the speed and stimulants that run through our social circles. But recent news about drug shortages has reminded me that millions of people rely on drugs to function and focus.this pioneer works broadcast The series is a kaleidoscope. Nine authors share their perspectives and experiences regarding prescription drugs. Some are solemn, some are funny. They are all intense in their own way. In his “Tweaking on Main,” Daniel Carr writes about our internet addiction and digital behavior, and how Adderall and Silicon Valley are working together. In “Adderall House Style,” Amber A’Lee Frost explains how to identify prose written in Adderall. In “Tapering,” Kendall Waldman reflects on how close to perfect the drug was, and that was precisely the problem. It is difficult to introduce only a few here, so I recommend reading them all at once. Taken together, the voices within the collection are a prism that reflects, distorts, and ultimately illuminates people’s complex relationships with Adderall. —CLR
Devon Frederiksen | Biography | March 21, 2024 | 4,248 words
Reading this essay, I realized that I had not made the clear connection that eiderdown comes from a duck called the eider. Forgive my ignorance and really enjoyed Devon Frederiksen’s education on this issue and Poul Hermansen’s beautiful photos that show us what they look like (boy eiders look cool, girls are brown). Ta. Spending time with the woolly ducks of the Vega Islands, Frederiksen joins the 50-odd people who temporarily live there as “birdwatchers” during nesting season to watch over the ducks and collect their ultra-soft feathers after they have fledged. Talk about the relationship in detail. . Frederiksen conjures up some gorgeous images. The small houses built by keepers for the ducks transform the coast into a “Lilliputian coastal village”. The 6-foot-tall Viking-like keeper mocks his worried mothers, telling them, “How wonderful!” This duck management has been going on for his 400 years, and despite some alarming statistics about duck decline, it shows a refreshingly positive relationship between humans and nature. Perhaps the important thing is that it’s no longer about money. For example, Vikings only collected enough feathers per year to fill one duvet. There is no factory farming in these Lilliputian duck homes (and some mansions, too, in case the ducks prefer communal living). For these parents, as Frederiksen writes, “love may be the purest reason to explain their continued involvement.” —C.W.
JD Daniels | paris reviews | March 26, 2024 | 2,155 words
I’ve never read it Moby Dick. I know that in some circles it is considered a grave sin. But to those people I say this. “By the way, how much do you know about Pittsfield, Massachusetts?” That’s what I thought too!I’m not proud, but I saw idiot and idiot At the shopping mall there. anyway. Read by JD Daniels Moby Dick. Apparently many times. That’s why he drove to Pittsfield to tour the house where Herman Melville once lived.Thankfully, you don’t have to read Moby Dick Check out Daniels’ short but moving piece. If you love driving on back roads, love fried chicken, or love art’s ability to impact your life, this is for you. Or, there are passages like this: “Be careful what you wish for. Inspiration means breathing. A drowning fish breathes.” There’s plenty of Melville here, to be sure, but with Daniels’ own enthusiasm Everything you need will be absorbed. Behind every recitation of knowledge, every memory, every word, a heart beats. And when I actually arrive at the tour, I’m surrounded by people who, like me, have never read the book. Moby Dick, you can fully understand Daniels’ numb disbelief. Why are there so many people in the world who have yet to experience such overwhelming beauty? —PR
audience award
What articles did our readers click on this week?
Matthew Haag | The New York Times | March 24, 2024 | 3,004 words
Mickey Barrett, the man who checked into Room 2565 of the New Yorker Hotel for one night, was able to take advantage of New York’s vague housing laws to claim ownership of the entire building. how did he do it? Matthew Haag explains in this outrageous story. —CLR