Longreads

Considering love and science at the Museum of Broken Relationships by Shannon Service, from Brink November-December 2011 Cour

Hellzapoppin' in the world of intellectual property rights these days. Lawsuits, corporate flim-flamming, the claims of far-sighted academics and developers, furious authors and artists and the…

I was talking with Mother. I suggested she take a trip West to visit the relatives. I said, "Youll have a good time." She was quick to reply. "Now, John,…

Andy Samberg re-enacting Walter Iooss Jr.'s photograph of a famous John McEnroe moment during the 1980 Wimbledon final against Bjorn Borg. More Photos

“My country is dying,” my friend, an Iraqi, says and looks at me. We’re standing in his garden and he is cradling some oily nuts and bolts in his hand. The sprinkler system he set up in our yard is filling the air with a thin mist. He has called his device the mister-mister. Outside the small triangle of relief it provides the air is tight and sharp. The sun is so hot it hurts my skin, which turns feverish and prickly. The leaves wither and grow leathery. The grass, such a feeble and primordial thorn, somehow endures. I look at my friend.

It’s always interesting when a very strange book is also an enduringly popular book. The Bell Jar has sold more than three million copies and is a mainstay of American high school English classes; it was made into a movie in 1979, and another version, starring Julia Stiles, is currently in production. Like The Catcher in the Rye, it is a touchstone for a certain kind of introspective, moody teenager—the kind of teenager who used to listen to the Cure and, later on, Tori Amos, and who these days listens to—actually I have no idea, but she definitely has a blog.

What happened to the music industry over the last 10 years or so was a lot like the plot of The Hangover. Bad

An artist's rendering of One World Trade CenterThe Devil wears Kevlar? Die HardWith a Blusher? "Hazmat: This spring's must-have fabric!"I'm sorry: It's not a joke. The hard-to-believe decisi

Welcome to the new food economics of 2011: Prices are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally. For Americans, who spend less than one-tenth of their income in the supermarket, the soaring food prices we've seen so far this year are an annoyance, not a calamity. But for the planet's poorest 2 billion people, who spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food, these soaring prices may mean going from two meals a day to one. Those who are barely hanging on to the lower rungs of the global economic ladder risk losing their grip entirely. This can contribute -- and it has -- to revolutions and upheaval.