The Geography of Stuck – The Atlantic Cities. Glad to verify my childhood hunch that no one ever leaves Louisiana, or if they do, they go back. 78.9% native, that one.
atlantic
A view of central Pyongyang, North Korea, at dusk on April 12, 2011. Photo by David Guttenfelder. Inside North Korea – The Atlantic. The most depressing place on Earth? (via)
Whatever the subject, a real critic is a cultural critic, always: if your judgment doesn’t bring in more of the world than it shuts out, you shouldn’t start.
Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism – The Atlantic
One guy’s favorites from 2010. Just when I was approaching Instapaper Zero again. (via)
The Joy of Not Cooking – The Atlantic
Leisure is as much about our pleasant fantasies as it is about what we’re actually doing.
It might reasonably be said that all art at some time and in some manner becomes mass entertainment, and that if it does not it dies and is forgotten.
What It’s Like to Work for Donald Rumsfeld – Alexis Madrigal – The Atlantic. “We also need to solve the Pakistan problem. And Korea doesn’t seem to be going well.”
Tech in Lyrics: James Brown the Anti-Technoutopian – Alexis Madrigal – The Atlantic
The Moral Crusade Against Foodies – The Atlantic
“Is any other subculture reported on so exclusively by its own members?”
Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor – Magazine – The Atlantic
Certainly, I understood why students who had worked so hard and done so well would want to go to schools like Harvard and Princeton, but many places seem to be prestigious simply because student fads and crazes have made them hard to get into. Brazenly capitalizing on the whims and passions of teenagers seems a questionable practice for institutions dedicated, in part, to the well-being of young people.
Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor – Magazine – The Atlantic
Baking for Beginners: An Introduction to Temperature – The Atlantic
You may read this and think: High maintenance! Picky! Temperamental! But I hope you’ll view it like this: Pastry is logical and consistent and wonderfully fun.
Baking for Beginners: An Introduction to Temperature – The Atlantic
In response to the The New York Times’ Cheney layout gaffe, a reader writes:
I still have a copy of the New York Times from August 8, 1974 — one day before Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. On the front page at the bottom is a photo of Nixon, walking from the Executive Office Building to the White House, juxtaposed with an article headlined, “Many Mental Patients Simply Walk Out.”
Read more here.
On White She-Devils – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic
It’s the Annual Kitchen Gift Guide – Megan McArdle – The Atlantic
A thoughtful, elaborate gift guide from an enthusiast. Great ideas here. And I like this bit at the end: “There is as much snobbery in what food people won’t pay for as in what they will”. Also applies to people in general.
It’s the Annual Kitchen Gift Guide – Megan McArdle – The Atlantic
Alexis Madrigal reflects on a time when photographs resembled paintings:
Many works like Edward Steichen’s “Flatiron—Evening Camera Work 14” (above) play with fog and smoke. They hide things in the greyscale and even tend toward a hazy abstraction. Everything becomes a little harder to see and a bit more romantic. I’d long, lazily assumed that turn-of-the-century photos looked like this because of technical reasons, that this was just how cameras made photos at the time. That’s not true. These photographers were skilled enough and their techniques good enough that they could have made razor sharp portraits, but they didn’t. Instead, we have two decades where the best photographs work like memories not recordings.
What Is the Koran? – Magazine – The Atlantic
Researchers with a variety of academic and theological interests are proposing controversial theories about the Koran and Islamic history, and are striving to reinterpret Islam for the modern world. This is, as one scholar puts it, a “sensitive business”
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? – Magazine – The Atlantic
Good article. One of the best ever, they say.
[An opinion poll on diamond purchases] noted, for example, “A woman can easily feel that diamonds are ‘vulgar’ and still be highly enthusiastic about receiving diamond jewelry.” The element of surprise, even if it is feigned, plays the same role of accommodating dissonance in accepting a diamond gift as it does in prime sexual seductions: it permits the woman to pretend that she has not actively participated in the decision. She thus retains both her innocence—and the diamond.
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? – Magazine – The Atlantic
A Death on Facebook – Magazine – The Atlantic
Dallas and Los Angeles represent two distinct models for successful American cities, which both reflect and reinforce different cultural and political attitudes. One model fosters a family-oriented, middle-class lifestyle—the proverbial home-centered “balanced life.” The other rewards highly productive, work-driven people with a yen for stimulating public activities, for arts venues, world-class universities, luxury shopping, restaurants that aren’t kid-friendly. One makes room for a wide range of incomes, offering most working people a comfortable life. The other, over time, becomes an enclave for the rich. Since day-to-day experience shapes people’s sense of what is typical and normal, these differences in turn lead to contrasting perceptions of economic and social reality. It’s easy to believe the middle class is vanishing when you live in Los Angeles, much harder in Dallas. These differences also reinforce different norms and values—different ideas of what it means to live a good life. Real estate may be as important as religion in explaining the infamous gap between red and blue states.
Virginia Postrel, A Tale of Two Townhouses (via christmasgorilla)
It’s fine to go through life happy, in other words, but I suspect we also want to go through life without becoming big fat self-absorbed jackasses. Children really help in that regard.
