[{"id":258241,"date":"2026-08-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longreads.com\/?p=258241"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:33:33","slug":"children-remote-school-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/children-remote-school-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ferry Boat Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With no secondary school in the southern half of the Isle of Mull, children must leave home for the mainland at the age of eleven, living in a youth hostel during the school week. It\u2019s a system that has existed for generations\u2014but what does sending children away so young do to a community? Fernando Pinho gently follows the families who must navigate this rite of passage, and explores the political decisions that have kept this structure in place.<\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48898,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.fernandoslogbook.com\\\/p\\\/the-ferry-boat-children\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260813160008\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.fernandoslogbook.com\\\/p\\\/the-ferry-boat-children?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.fernandoslogbook.com\\\/p\\\/the-ferry-boat-children?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-13 16:11:24&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-16 16:34:57&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-19 20:35:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-22 23:38:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-26 06:10:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-30 02:23:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-02 18:07:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-05 21:54:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-09 06:36:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-14 11:03:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-17 11:24:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-20 14:29:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 17:28:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 17:28:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You know that Monday morning dread, she said, when you hate your job and you can\u2019t face going back? The children get that on a Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunday is the day of washing, drying and ironing, because the clothes that came home on Friday have to be packed again for Monday. And then the bag sits at the bottom of the stairs. You come down, and you see it, she said, and it\u2019s this little reminder of what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes there\u2019s an invitation, a barbecue at someone\u2019s house, all of them welcome, just a couple of hours, you\u2019ll be home in time. But her son doesn\u2019t want to leave the house on a Sunday, and she won\u2019t leave him. How do I say I can\u2019t go, she told me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fernandoslogbook.com\/p\/the-ferry-boat-children\/?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles is-style-borders wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 show-image image-aligntop ts-2 is-3 is-landscape is-style-borders\"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258241\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More picks on Scotland <\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"259747\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-longreads tag-politics tag-populism tag-scotland tag-separatism tag-shetland tag-shetland-first tag-shetland-isles tag-the-fence category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/09\/17\/shetlands-most-wanted\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Shetland&#8217;s Most Wanted<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Shailer | The Fence | September 7, 2026 | 2,385 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A series of encounters with an unlikely band of separatists.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"258241\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-children tag-fernando-pinho tag-fernandos-logbook tag-isle-of-mull tag-longreads tag-school tag-scotland tag-travel category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/children-remote-school-scotland\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Ferry Boat Children<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tFernando Pinho | Fernando&#8217;s Logbook | August 10, 2026 | 7,295 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;For the children of south Mull, secondary school means leaving home age eleven. Their parents&#8217; silence was never consent.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"193523\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-longreads tag-nonfiction tag-scotland tag-sea-eagles category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2023\/09\/12\/the-sea-eagles-that-returned-to-mull\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Sea Eagles That Returned to Mull<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tEmma Marris | Hakai Magazine | September 12, 2023 | 3,900 words \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Almost 50 years ago, conservationists reintroduced white-tailed eagles to Scotland. It\u2019s gone well. Some say too well.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"192198\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-food tag-scotland tag-the-guardian tag-tom-lamont tag-united-kingdom category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2023\/07\/21\/a-funeral-for-fish-and-chips-why-are-britains-chippies-disappearing\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">A Funeral for Fish and Chips: Why are Britain\u2019s Chippies Disappearing?<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tTom Lamont | The Guardian | July 20, 2023 | 5,276 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Plenty of people will tell you the East Neuk of Fife in Scotland is the best place in the world to eat fish and chips. So what happens when its chippies\u2014and chippies across the UK\u2014start to close?&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"176716\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-history tag-legend tag-loch-ness tag-mystery tag-scotland category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2020\/12\/15\/the-obsessive-life-and-mysterious-death-of-the-fisherman-who-discovered-the-loch-ness-monster\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Obsessive Life and Mysterious Death of the Fisherman Who Discovered The Loch Ness Monster<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPaul Brown | Narratively | December 10, 2020 | 5,504 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u201cA humble Scotsman saw something strange in the water \u2014 and daringly set out to catch it \u2014 only to have lecherous out-of-towners steal his fame and upend his quest.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"176407\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-hebridean-island tag-i-am-an-island tag-nature tag-remote tag-scotland tag-tamsin-calidas tag-the-guardian category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2020\/07\/28\/i-ran-away-to-a-remote-scottish-isle-it-was-perfect\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">I Ran Away To a Remote Scottish Isle. It Was Perfect<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tTamsin Calidas | The Guardian | July 26, 2020 | 2,343 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u201cCrowded out of the city by noise and stress, I embraced the wild solitude of a Hebridean island \u2013 and found a connection to nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;For the children of south Mull, secondary school means leaving home age eleven. Their parents&#8217; silence was never consent.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":698,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Fernando Pinho | Fernando's Logbook | August 10, 2026 | 7,295 words","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15973],"tags":[601,29156,29158,29157,325,17602,1105,51],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[15376],"class_list":["post-258241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick","tag-children","tag-fernando-pinho","tag-fernandos-logbook","tag-isle-of-mull","tag-longreads","tag-school","tag-scotland","tag-travel","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Ferry Boat Children - Longreads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/children-remote-school-scotland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ferry Boat Children - Longreads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;For the children of south Mull, secondary school means leaving home age eleven. 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This Retired Projectionist for Those 3 a.m.\u00a0Odyssey\u00a070-mm. Imax Showings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pat Caldwell is 69 years old and, as Chris Stanton gushes in this uproarious Q&amp;A, &#8220;a legend to IMAX nerds.&#8221; Caldwell loves Vision3 film stock, hates <em>Joker: Folie \u00e0 Deux<\/em>, and has discovered more than one dead body in a movie theater. His decades-long career as a projectionist includes a stint at a Tennessee porn theater with &#8220;very good equipment,&#8221; and he once spent half a year screening <em>Lawrence of Arabia<\/em> four times daily. When Stanton reached out to Caldwell on the occasion of <em>The Odyssey<\/em>, he may have landed the year&#8217;s most entertaining interview.<\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48897,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.vulture.com\\\/article\\\/thank-this-projectionist-for-the-odysseys-70-mm-imax-run.html?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260813150012\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.vulture.com\\\/article\\\/thank-this-projectionist-for-the-odysseys-70-mm-imax-run.html?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-13 15:12:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-16 15:13:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-19 15:42:37&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-22 16:19:50&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-25 20:40:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-29 03:03:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-01 22:57:38&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-05 08:01:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-08 09:17:13&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-11 19:15:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-14 22:03:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-18 08:54:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-22 04:39:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-25 10:49:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-25 10:49:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So Sam taught me how to run the projectors, and he got drunk, passed out on the couch. And after the concession stand in the box office closed, I would go up and run the rest of the movies for him. This went very nicely until one night there\u2019s a knock at the door. I opened the door and here\u2019s this old man standing there. And I said, \u201cWell, who are you?\u201d He says, \u201cI could ask the same question. Who are you? I\u2019m the business agent of the local projectionists\u2019 union.\u201d I explained what was going on. He woke up Sam, chewed him out. And the next day they made me an apprentice. I trained for a year with no pay at all the local theaters in Nashville.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/thank-this-projectionist-for-the-odysseys-70-mm-imax-run.html?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles is-style-borders wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 ts-2 is-style-borders\"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258233\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>A few picks from behind the scenes<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"239057\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-hollywood tag-intimacy tag-jennifer-wilson tag-movies tag-sex-scenes tag-television tag-the-new-yorker category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2025\/06\/09\/intimacy-coordinator-new-yorker\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How I Learned to Become an Intimacy Co\u00f6rdinator<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tJennifer Wilson | The New Yorker | June 9, 2025 | 5,746 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;At a sex-choreography workshop, a writer discovered a world of Instant Chemistry exercises, penis pouches, and nudity riders to train for Hollywood\u2019s most controversial job.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"224916\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-1980s tag-apartheid tag-dan-kois tag-movies tag-slate tag-south-africa category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2024\/07\/24\/the-strange-saga-of-the-gods-must-be-crazy\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Strange Saga of \u2018The Gods Must Be Crazy\u2019<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tDan Kois | Slate | July 21, 2024 | 4,141 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;The racist 1980s comedy broke box-office records worldwide\u2014then promptly disappeared. The story behind it is revealing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"217033\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-doug-liman tag-gq tag-movies tag-oral-history tag-paul-schrodt category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2024\/05\/09\/how-go-the-wildest-druggiest-horniest-cult-movie-of-1999-got-made-and-almost-didnt\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How \u2018Go,\u2019 the Wildest, Druggiest, Horniest Cult Movie of 1999 Got Made (And Almost Didn\u2019t)<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tPaul Schrodt | GQ | April 30, 2024 | 7,543 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Twenty-five years after it came out\u2014and got bulldozed in theaters by The Matrix\u2014the timeline-twisting indie comedy Go looks better than ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;A Tennessee native and longtime film projectionist who first started working in Imax theaters in the \u201990s, Caldwell has become integral to Imax\u2019s 70-mm. rollouts even as he considers himself mostly retired.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Chris Stanton | Vulture | August 3, 2026 | 3,576 words","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15973],"tags":[735,29150,29153,23427,847,29152,2484,29155,304,29151,285,794],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[15505],"class_list":["post-258233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick","tag-art","tag-chris-stanton","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-directors","tag-film","tag-imax","tag-interviews","tag-movie-theaters","tag-movies","tag-pat-caldwell","tag-theater","tag-vulture","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thank This Retired Projectionist for Those 3 a.m.\u00a0Odyssey\u00a070-mm. 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Emi Nietfeld spent more than a year reporting this rollercoaster of a feature. One particularly harrowing turn involves the father hiring people to retrieve the babies for him:<\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48896,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.thecut.com\\\/article\\\/surrogate-triplets-custody-china.html?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260813130402\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.thecut.com\\\/article\\\/surrogate-triplets-custody-china.html?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-13 13:21:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-16 13:46:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-19 17:56:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-22 18:47:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-25 22:03:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-29 06:51:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-01 13:22:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-04 18:10:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-07 18:52:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-10 23:06:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-14 05:56:31&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-17 09:59:50&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-20 14:31:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 20:10:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 20:10:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the men continued knocking on her door, Simpson\u2019s phone convulsed with notifications. Zhou messaged her nonstop. He called 53 times. \u201cIf you don\u2019t give my babies to us, we have to report to the police. And you will be arrested immediately,\u201d he warned. Then came pleas\u2014or were they threats? \u201cThink about your daughter,\u201d he wrote, referring to Simpson\u2019s 5-year-old. \u201cI don\u2019t think you want to have her be live without you for several years!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Halfway across the world, Zhou paced in his apartment, chest seizing in panic. Over and over, he\u2019d tried to explain his predicament to Simpson. He was still waiting for his visa interview; without her help, he couldn\u2019t get his kids home. Running out of money and options, he\u2019d hired the handlers as a last resort. Now, as his calls and messages went ignored, he feared she\u2019d fallen in love with his children and would never let them go.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecut.com\/article\/surrogate-triplets-custody-china.html?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 ts-2 \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258220\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More picks about surrogacy<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"258220\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-emi-nietfeld tag-fertility tag-florida tag-health tag-law tag-new-york tag-new-york-magazine tag-parenting tag-pregnancy tag-surrogacy tag-the-cut category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/whose-babies-are-these\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Whose Babies Are These?<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tEmi Nietfeld | New York | August 11, 2026 | 9,615 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A Chinese man hired a Florida surrogate, then didn\u2019t pick up his kids, sparking a custody battle that could upend the industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"249773\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-abuse tag-ava-kofman tag-califonia tag-california tag-childbirth tag-family tag-law tag-los-angeles tag-parenting tag-surrogacy tag-the-new-yorker category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/02\/10\/the-babies-kept-in-a-mysterious-los-angeles-mansion\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Babies Kept in a Mysterious Los Angeles Mansion<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tAva Kofman | The New Yorker | February 9, 2026 | 12,128 words\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A wealthy couple obtained dozens of children through surrogates. Did they want a family, or something else?&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"242204\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-children tag-emi-nietfeld tag-fertility tag-health tag-medicine tag-pregnancy tag-surrogacy tag-venture-capital tag-wired category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2025\/09\/09\/the-baby-died-whose-fault-is-it\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It?<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tEmi Nietfeld | Wired | September 3, 2025 | 6,291 words\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;When her son died in utero, a venture capitalist went to extremes to punish her surrogate.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;A Chinese man hired a Florida surrogate, then didn\u2019t pick up his kids, sparking a custody battle that could upend the industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Emi Nietfeld | New York 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Aviv: Mother and Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Award-winning <em>New Yorker<\/em> writer Rachel Aviv recently published a collection of essays about the relationships between mothers and daughters. She talked to Lucy McKeon about her longstanding interest in stories about families and about revisiting old topics through new lenses: <\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48895,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/pioneerworks.org\\\/broadcast\\\/rachel-aviv-you-wont-get-free-of-it-motherhood?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260812193358\\\/https:\\\/\\\/pioneerworks.org\\\/broadcast\\\/rachel-aviv-you-wont-get-free-of-it-motherhood?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-12 22:35:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-16 03:49:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-19 08:48:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-22 10:21:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-25 16:41:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-28 20:51:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-01 08:31:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-07 14:55:37&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-12 00:31:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-15 00:45:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-19 01:07:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-22 12:28:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-25 15:46:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-25 15:46:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LM<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You write in the preface about your own experience of this. Not only in your relationship to your own mother, which I want to ask you about, but you describe revisiting some of these stories, years after first reporting and writing them, now as a more experienced writer, and a mother yourself. Through new insight, and in some cases encountering details you\u2019d previously overlooked, you decided to make some revisions. I wonder how it felt to look back on this work by a younger version of yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RA<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think I was most surprised by how one\u2019s curiosity changes\u2014by the moments where I realized I had failed to be curious. And where my present-day self would have identified a particular episode or trauma as foundational, I had breezed past it [back then]. It was about age, it was about being a different kind of writer, maybe. I kept noticing that I had omitted lost babies or dead babies\u2014in three different stories. It fundamentally wasn\u2019t registering to me as a significant life event. Those are some of the things that I felt newly attentive to, that I couldn\u2019t just leave be. I felt I needed to address [them].<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/pioneerworks.org\/broadcast\/rachel-aviv-you-wont-get-free-of-it-motherhood?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\">Read the interview<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 ts-2 \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258204\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More picks about motherhood<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"258204\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-alice-munro tag-daughters tag-essays tag-lucy-mckeon tag-motherhood tag-pioneer-works-broadcast tag-rachel-aviv tag-writing category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/rachel-aviv-interview\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rachel Aviv: Mother and Daughter<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tLucy McKeon | Pioneer Works Broadcast | July 8, 2026 | 3,237 words\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;An interview with the author of &#8216;Strangers to Ourselves&#8217;\u2014and now, &#8216;You Won\u2019t Get Free of It.&#8217;&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"253475\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-asian tag-asian-american-2 tag-books tag-china tag-chinese tag-culture tag-diaspora tag-immigrants tag-motherhood tag-mothers tag-mothers-and-daughters tag-movies tag-parenting tag-pop-culture tag-rebecca-liu tag-stereotypes tag-the-guardian category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/04\/29\/asian-mothers-tiger-moms\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Asian Mothers, Bad Feelings: Notes on An All-conquering Stereotype<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tRebecca Liu | The Guardian | April 28, 2026 | 4,482 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A certain image of the tiger mom\u2014 strict, cold and demanding\u2014is ubiquitous in popular culture. Why?&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"251848\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-art tag-babies tag-bodies tag-feminism tag-megan-ogrady tag-motherhood tag-photography tag-the-yale-review category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/03\/25\/the-body-i-couldnt-abstract\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Body I Couldn&#8217;t Abstract<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tMegan O&#8217;Grady | The Yale Review | March 16, 2026 | 4,992 words \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Motherhood reshaped how I see shame, art, and the female body.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;An interview with the author of &#8216;Strangers to Ourselves&#8217;\u2014and now, &#8216;You Won\u2019t Get Free of It.'&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Lucy McKeon | Pioneer Works Broadcast | July 8, 2026 | 3,237 words\n","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15973],"tags":[9364,6349,400,29145,293,24039,3024,489],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[16813],"class_list":["post-258204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick","tag-alice-munro","tag-daughters","tag-essays","tag-lucy-mckeon","tag-motherhood","tag-pioneer-works-broadcast","tag-rachel-aviv","tag-writing","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rachel Aviv: Mother and Daughter - Longreads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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00:02:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 00:02:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:80%\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400\">Thoughtful stories for thoughtless times.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">Longreads has published hundreds of original stories\u2014personal essays, reported features, reading lists, and more\u2014and more than 14,000 editor&#8217;s picks. <strong>And they&#8217;re all funded by readers like you.<\/strong> Become a member today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/join?src=top-promo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I want to support Longreads<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the most vivid memories of my childhood involves an ice cream. My mother and father kept a relatively treat-free house, with desserts reserved for special occasions, but their standards loosened during summer vacations. During a visit with relatives we didn\u2019t see very often, my parents decided to make the day even more special; they gave my sister, my two cousins, and me money to buy something from the ice cream truck that made a regular circuit around the neighborhood. Thrilled by this rare indulgence, I rushed down the sidewalk, delighted to finally take part in this classic summertime ritual, eating dessert in the <em>middle of the afternoon<\/em>!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can still remember the thrill of holding that much-anticipated cone, taking my first lick . . .\u00a0 then watching the scoop roll off its biscuity throne to the sidewalk.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps that is why, as an adult, my freezer is always stocked with at least two flavors of ice cream, which I eat year-round. It\u2019s my go-to way to reward myself after a productive day, or to make a bad one better. While I tend to keep things simple (and have been known to eat directly out of the carton), I love ice cream for its versatility. It can support a piece of apple pie or be the main event in a fudge-slathered sundae. Its near-infinite variety of flavors offers something for everyone, from no-frills vanilla to chef-inspired gastronomic experiments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That ability to shape-shift has made this humble dessert a mirror of sorts, reflecting cultural changes. It even goes back to the founding of the country: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monticello.org\/encyclopedia\/ice-cream\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a> was the first known American to write down an ice cream recipe (though it\u2019s only fairly recently that historians have begun to acknowledge his problematic relationship with the enslaved workers who produced such delicacies for his guests). A century later, advances in refrigeration transformed ice cream from a luxury good to a mass-market phenomenon. As immigration surged in the US, peddling ice cream on the street became a way for new arrivals to grasp the American dream. During World War II, the dessert symbolized the country\u2019s can-do attitude: Despite the many logistical obstacles, the US government shipped it to troops as far away as the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our current Age of Ozempic, while celebrities get ever slimmer and our screens fill with physical-optimization hacks, desserts may seem like an endangered species. But I believe it\u2019s more important than ever to take guilt-free pleasure in food that brings you joy. And if you still feel a twinge of hesitation before digging into a bowl of your favorite flavor, multiple studies over the past 20 years have shown that ice cream actually has real, measurable health benefits (see David Merritt Johns\u2019s piece from <em>The Atlantic<\/em> below). No less an authority than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ezekielemanuel.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel<\/a>, a prominent bioethicist and oncologist, titled his most recent book on healthy living <em>Eat Your Ice Cream<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So go ahead and have a scoop. Think of it as doctor\u2019s orders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eater.com\/22639428\/the-secret-history-of-food-excerpt-ice-cream-history\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Ice Cream Became the Ultimate American Comfort Food<\/a> (Matt Siegel, <em>Eater<\/em>, August 2021)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This entertaining account traces ice cream\u2019s transformation from an expensive luxury to an all-American dish in the early 20th century, when advances in refrigeration made it more widely available. Prohibition played a part, too: When alcohol was banned nationwide in the 1920s and early \u201930s, some breweries switched to making ice cream instead, \u201ca decent substitute for alcohol for the drowning of one\u2019s emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what really stands out in this story is the role ice cream played in World War II, when it became a symbol of American patriotism. Siegel weaves together historical anecdotes that show the enormous effort the US military put into embedding ice cream throughout its supply lines. Why go through all that trouble? Siegel makes a compelling case that getting ice cream halfway around the world, under such difficult circumstances, was a way of putting American exceptionalism into action. If we can do this for our soldiers, we can do anything.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the time World War II came around, ice cream . . . had become inseparable from the American way of life, an emblem of American comfort, freedom, and democracy. The rest of the world went back to banning ice cream as part of its rationing efforts (with Great Britain adding salt to the wound by endorsing carrots on sticks as the official wartime substitute for ice cream bars), but the United States doubled down, building pop-up ice cream factories on the front lines; delivering individual ice cream cartons to foxholes; spending more than a million dollars on a floating ice cream barge that roamed the Pacific delivering ice cream to Allied ships incapable of making their own; and distributing 135 million pounds of dehydrated ice cream base in 1943 alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And you\u2019re goddamn right we won the war.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tastingtable.com\/1998196\/iconic-ice-cream-flavors-invented-history\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fifteen Iconic Ice Cream Flavors and How They Were Invented<\/a> (Vanessa Barron, <em>Tasting Table<\/em>, October 2025)\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This engaging survey of popular ice cream flavors is filled with trivia-night-worthy fun facts: that vanilla is consistently the best-selling flavor worldwide; that chocolate ice cream may actually have been created first (cocoa being more readily available than vanilla); and that mint chocolate chip got an international popularity boost when a British culinary student created the dessert \u201cMint Royale\u201d to celebrate the marriage of England\u2019s Princess Anne in 1973.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But such is the nature of culinary history that not all lineages are straightforward. I appreciate the way Barron analyzes all the possible origin stories, even when they contradict. While some flavors have a single known inventor\u2014such as the Grateful Dead fan who suggested \u201cCherry Garcia\u201d to the hippie entrepreneurs Ben &amp; Jerry\u2019s\u2014others resulted from experimentation over time. Some even have shameful associations: Butter pecan, for example, became popular in the American South, where the nuts were plentiful and used to dilute vanilla ice cream when serving it to Black customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rocky Road could be considered the ice cream world&#8217;s first mix-in flavor, blending creamy ice cream with crunchy and chewy additions. According to legend, its creation dates back to 1929, when ice cream maker William Dreyer and candy maker Joseph Edy teamed up in Oakland, California. During the Great Depression\u2014a &#8220;rocky&#8221; time for America\u2014Dreyer supposedly invented the flavor by using his wife&#8217;s sewing scissors to cut marshmallows into a chocolate ice cream base studded with walnuts. The duo mass-produced the new flavor, giving the country a bit of sweetness and humor during a bleak decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the name &#8220;Rocky Road&#8221; may have existed long before. In the mid-1800s in Australia, settlers used the term for a confection of sweets, nuts, and dried fruit; essentially, a proto-trail mix. And just down the road from Dreyer&#8217;s and Edy&#8217;s, Fentons Creamery also claims to have invented the flavor, swapping walnuts for almonds in their signature version.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetakeout.com\/museum-of-ice-cream-chicago-2022-review-1849343827\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Museum of Ice Cream is a Horrifying Fun House<\/a> (Brianna Wellen, <em>The Takeout<\/em>, July 2022)&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brianna Wellen had one overarching question when she visited the Chicago outpost of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.museumoficecream.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Museum of Ice Cream<\/a>: What is this place? I had the same thought as Wellen when it started showing up on Google Maps as a must-see attraction in my hometown\u2014is this \u201can influencer&#8217;s paradise? A children&#8217;s playground?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer, it turns out, in her snarky-but-fair review, is both. A privately owned chain with five locations in the US and one in Singapore, it started as a pop-up \u201cexperience\u201d in New York, with an aggressively pink aesthetic that bridged the line between kids\u2019 party and Instagrammable photo op. If you\u2019re looking for \u201can anthropological look at the history and cultural impact of ice cream,\u201d she writes, this isn\u2019t it. (Though I\u2019d happily visit <em>that<\/em> museum.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s more fun to write a scathing review than a positive one, but Wellen doesn\u2019t take the easy route and go full hater. She acknowledges that the people around her are having fun taking pictures in the giant pool of faux sprinkles, and that the unlimited ice cream samples may be worth the price of admission for some, even if the Chicago hot-dog-style signature treat looks better than it tastes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What she points out so effectively is the chasm between the museum\u2019s ethos of lighthearted escapism and its grim reality: It is housed in a building that used to be the headquarters of the prestigious <em>Chicago Tribune <\/em>newspaper, now given over to an ephemeral, commercial experience dependent on overworked, demoralized employees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s something extremely dystopian about these bright, colorful, somewhat functionless installations popping up inside closed businesses, which is how the project started. And seeing Chicago&#8217;s iteration in the storefront of the now empty Tribune Tower, which once housed some of the most influential journalists the city had to offer, was disappointing, signaling that while the media industry is on its deathbed, people will form a line down the block to snap a photo with a plastic sprinkle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was something about the staff&#8217;s demeanor that led me to believe they weren&#8217;t as excited to be there as their oft-repeated scripted banter made it seem. The logistics of certain experiences seemed like a mess; the large, unending crowds needed to be endlessly wrangled; and the loud music meant that their faux cheerful taglines needed to be screamed right into the ears of visitors to be heard. Smiles were pasted on as impatient guests asked why they couldn&#8217;t just go into the Ice Cream Lab already. When Angela and I kindly told one worker that there was no rush in letting us into a particular room and then complimented her ice-cream-themed hair clips, she reacted with such graciousness at our attitudes that I thought she was about to start sobbing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2023\/05\/ice-cream-bad-for-you-health-study\/673487\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nutrition Science\u2019s Most Preposterous Result<\/a> (David Merritt Johns, <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, April 2023)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I still remember my visceral reaction on reading this <em>Atlantic<\/em> story a few years ago: Is ice cream actually <em>good for me<\/em>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this exhaustively researched and reported piece, Merritt Johns explains how a statistically significant finding can be pushed aside when it doesn\u2019t fit an accepted narrative. For more than 20 years, nutritional studies have shown that diabetics who eat half a cup of ice cream a day have a lower risk of heart problems, and people who eat two or more servings of ice cream a week had a significantly lower risk of developing diabetes in the first place. Yet those findings seemed so contrary to public health advice that alternate explanations kept being pushed instead\u2014it\u2019s just dairy that\u2019s good for you, especially if you choose low-fat milk or yogurt. \u201cAs academia\u2019s public-relations machinery came to life,\u201d he writes, \u201cnuance went out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poor ice cream never got its due\u2014until now.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every day brings another health story about a so-called \u201csuperfood,\u201d but Merritt Johns\u2019s relentless focus on the facts sets this one apart. Rather than relying on an academic study or two, he tracks down all the key researchers involved in what I like to call the Great Ice Cream Cover-up: \u201cI wanted to know what happens when consensus makers are confronted with a finding that seems to contradict everything they\u2019ve ever said before.\u201d Some refuse to be interviewed (more proof of a conspiracy?), but most seem relieved to finally admit that seemingly set-in-stone advice about what\u2019s good for us is more malleable than we think.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2004, the English epidemiologist Michael Marmot wrote, \u201cScientific findings do not fall on blank minds that get made up as a result. Science engages with busy minds that have strong views about how things are and ought to be.\u201d Marmot was writing about how politicians deal with scientific evidence\u2014always concluding that the latest data supported their existing views\u2014but he acknowledged that scientists weren\u2019t so different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ice-cream saga shows how this plays out in practice. Many stories can be told about any given scientific inquiry, and choosing one is a messy, value-laden process. A scientist may worry over how their story fits with common sense, and whether they have sufficient evidence to back it up. They may also worry that it poses a threat to public health, or to their credibility. If there\u2019s a lesson to be drawn from the parable of the diet world\u2019s most inconvenient truth, it\u2019s that scientific knowledge is itself a packaged good. The data, whatever they show, are just ingredients.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/eating-californias-most-controversial-ice-cream\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eating California\u2019s Most Controversial Ice Cream<\/a> (Amy Ettinger, <em>Literary Hub<\/em>, June 2017)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who thought foie gras ice cream was a good idea? And more importantly\u2014what does it taste like? Amy Ettinger took on these pressing questions with a visit to Humphry Slocombe, a \u201ckid-unfriendly\u201d ice cream shop in San Francisco. Chef and co-owner Jake Godby admits the controversial flavor is only rarely on the menu (it\u2019s too expensive and takes too long to make), but the debate surrounding it has been good for business. Hardcore foodies rush to buy it when they can, while the protests of animal-rights activists only raise the shop\u2019s profile.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than a food review, Ettinger explores why people make and eat extreme flavors. She argues that American palates have expanded over the decades; we\u2019ve gotten used to ordering Korean barbecue tacos and sushi burritos, mash-ups unknown (and unthinkable) to our great-grandparents. To grab attention\u2014and prove your chops as an out-of-the-box culinary thinker\u2014you have to raise the stakes: \u201cOne person\u2019s gross-out experience seems to be another person\u2019s gleeful experimentation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I took another bite, I couldn\u2019t help but feel a thrill. There was something decadent in eating a treat that so many people would be upset about. The wrath I could incur by simply opening my mouth, chewing, and swallowing made me feel powerful. And maybe that perceived transgression is itself a flavor enhancer, much like artificial coloring can ramp up our experience of \u201clime\u201d or \u201cbanana\u201d in some mass-produced, neon-colored taffy or gum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is that why Godby put it on the menu\u2014so he could wield that kind of power? Why continue making food that would anger people? Was it to get attention?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2025\/08\/26\/ice-cream-truck-history-hysteria\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">99 Problems: The Ice Cream Truck\u2019s Surprising History<\/a> (Olivia Potts, <em>Longreads<\/em>, August 2025)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who knew the simple ice cream truck had such a dramatic backstory? As an avid collector of historical trivia, I devoured this account of ice cream\u2019s mobile history, starting with 19th-century immigrant street peddlers through controversies over the trucks\u2019 music, cleanliness, and supposed ties to organized crime (the notorious Glasgow Ice Cream Van Wars ended with six people killed in a fire).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What gives this piece a lovely personal touch is the way Potts weaves this past with her own memories of growing up in an English seaside town, where she and her father would pick up ice cream treats in the summer: \u201cAn unspoken secret between us, given that Mum had dinner waiting on the table when we arrived, and would have been appalled to know that a mere seven minutes earlier, we were driving along the seafront, car top down, the salty air whipping my long hair into the ice cream and sticky sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As she interviews ice cream van owners whose vocation goes back generations\u2014along with the entrepreneurs adapting their vehicles to new technologies\u2014she is struck by how many people in the business are following a family tradition. \u201cIt\u2019s an industry that remains strong, with an uncanny ability to adapt to changing times,\u201d she writes. \u201cI am fascinated by its survival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While it may be more common now to see an ice cream truck at an event or on TikTok, we still crave those summer days when jaunty chimes call us out to the street. The odds can feel stacked against the old-school icey men, with legislation that limits their movement,&nbsp;environmental and nutritional campaigners who demand more and more restrictions, rising pitch rents, the price of vans, the difference, even, in the way children play outside. But they\u2019re still there, still clinging on. Why?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/craftsmanship.net\/the-secrets-of-an-italian-gelato-master\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Secrets of an Italian Gelato Maker<\/a> (Erla Zwingle, <em>Craftsmanship, <\/em>June 2016)&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This portrait of master <em>gelatiere<\/em> Andrea Soban oozes with admiration for its subject\u2014and had me craving his signature mandarin orange flavor. From his base in Valenza, Italy, halfway between Milan and Torino, he continues a family tradition that goes back at least five generations: creating the most flavorful, creamy gelato free of artificial ingredients or colors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The word gelato\u2014Italy\u2019s lower-fat, lower-sugar version of ice cream\u2014literally means \u201cfrozen,\u201d but making it at Soban\u2019s level involves science-whiz levels of knowledge. Zwingle shows the intricate steps he takes to get the right balance of ice crystals, fat droplets, and air bubbles. While he sources ingredients from around the world, most of his favorites come from specific parts of Italy; the best pistachios, for example, are grown in one small Sicilian town.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This story gave me a new appreciation for the effort that goes into making a seemingly simple dessert\u2014when the person making it wants to be the very best, that is. Anyone want to join me on a field trip to Valenza?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTry this,\u201d Andrea said, as he handed me a tiny spoonful of a just-made mandarin sorbetto. Sensations of cold, and a smooth wave of extraordinary citrus flavor, blended into a faultless harmony as the whole combination swept up to my brain. It tasted juicier than the juice of the fruit itself. And then it simply disappeared. No loading my tongue with a mass of flavors jostling together, struggling for dominance, leaving assorted clinging aftertastes as my stomach braced itself. It left only the desire for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suddenly I understood the hidden power of fine gelato. It doesn\u2019t aim only for my mouth, and my stomach is really of no interest. It aims for the dopamine reward system lurking in my brain, the part that says, \u201cYou don\u2019t need this, but you\u2019ve got to have it.\u201d We did these little teaching-tastings intermittently all morning. I paid close attention to everything he said, but the voice in my head kept crooning incoherently about what was happening in my mouth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/elizabethblackwellbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elizabeth Blackwell<\/a>&nbsp;is the author of&nbsp;<\/em>While Beauty Slept<em>,<\/em>&nbsp;On a Cold Dark Sea<em>, and&nbsp;<\/em>Red Mistress<em>. She lives outside Chicago with her family and stacks of books she is absolutely, positively going to read one day.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Editor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wells_ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Carolyn Wells<\/a><br>Copyeditor:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/kristastevens.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Krista Stevens<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seven stories that celebrate the surprising influence of a humble dessert. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1302,"featured_media":258097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Seven stories that celebrate the surprising influence of a humble dessert. ","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[209],"tags":[29129,29131,29127,29130,24952,1071,29128,45,4580,325,25186,17603,29133,368,24486,29132],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[22468],"class_list":["post-258085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading-list","tag-amy-ettinger","tag-brianna-wellen","tag-craftmanship","tag-david-merritt-johns","tag-dessert","tag-eater","tag-erla-zwingle","tag-family","tag-literary-hub","tag-longreads","tag-olivia-potts","tag-summer","tag-tasting-table","tag-the-atlantic","tag-the-takeout","tag-vanessa-baron","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Here\u2019s the Scoop: A Reading List on Ice Cream - Longreads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/reading-list-ice-cream-summer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here\u2019s the Scoop: A Reading List on Ice Cream - Longreads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Seven stories that celebrate the surprising influence of a humble dessert.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/13\/reading-list-ice-cream-summer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Longreads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-13T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stormy Morse lost two partners to gun suicide. She didn&#8217;t know that the second one, Lewis Tabler, had made the National Rifle Association the beneficiary of his retirement savings through its planned-giving program. In this feature, co-published with <em>The New Yorker<\/em>, Mike Spies describes what happens when the NRA, which has long denied a connection between access to guns and suicide rates, comes to collect: <\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48894,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.thetrace.org\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/gun-suicide-nra-planned-giving\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260812110209\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.thetrace.org\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/gun-suicide-nra-planned-giving\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-12 11:21:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-15 15:58:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-18 16:29:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-21 16:48:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-24 16:56:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-27 22:07:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-01 09:45:42&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-04 16:19:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-08 18:20:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-12 13:06:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-15 15:42:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-19 06:33:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 02:38:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 02:38:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fisher, the NRA\u2019s planned-giving director &#8230; e-mailed Applied Industrial, pointing out that Tabler had been dead for two months, and that \u201caccounts with properly designated beneficiaries\u201d are \u201cgenerally available for distribution within 7\u201310 business days.\u201d He went on, \u201cWe want to do whatever is needed to make this a smooth process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, multiple debt collectors had filed claims against Tabler\u2019s estate, and the register of wills informed Stormy that she also owed an inheritance tax, since she was now the sole owner of the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a favor, a neighbor of Stormy\u2019s who was a lawyer spoke to the NRA\u2019s assistant general counsel, Sarah Gervase, on her behalf. The neighbor raised the possibility that the organization might give up some of the money, according to Gervase, who recounted the exchange in an e-mail with Applied Industrial in early June. Gervase wrote that she \u201cinformed\u201d Stormy\u2019s neighbor that the \u201cNRA is not willing to settle this.\u201d Tabler\u2019s cause of death did not seem to have any bearing on the organization\u2019s position.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrace.org\/2026\/07\/gun-suicide-nra-planned-giving\/?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 ts-2 \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258155\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More picks about gun control<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"258155\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-gun-control tag-guns tag-mike-spies tag-national-rifle-association tag-nra tag-suicide tag-the-new-yorker tag-the-trace category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/08\/12\/nra-planned-giving\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Parting Shot<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tMike Spies | The Trace | July 27, 2026 | 6,263 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Stormy Morse lost two partners to gun suicide. Then the NRA came to collect.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"222942\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-firearms tag-gun-control tag-gun-violence tag-longreads tag-nbc-news tag-politics tag-public-health tag-shootings tag-suzy-khimm tag-violence category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2024\/07\/10\/the-smallest-victims-why-does-america-keep-allowing-toddlers-to-shoot-themselves\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Smallest Victims: Why Does America Keep Allowing Toddlers to Shoot Themselves?<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tSuzy Khimm | NBC News | June 28, 2024 | 3,994 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Nearly every day, a child unintentionally fires a gun and injures or kills someone. It&#8217;s one of the most preventable forms of gun violence\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s easy to solve.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"190000\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-buffalo tag-children tag-education tag-gun-control tag-gun-violence tag-guns tag-journalism tag-mass-shooting tag-newtown tag-nonfiction tag-public-safety tag-skip-hollandsworth tag-texas tag-texas-monthly tag-trauma tag-u-s-senate category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2023\/05\/09\/amor-eterno\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Amor Eterno<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tSkip Hollandsworth | Texas Monthly | May 8, 2023 | 7,580 words\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;One year ago, before the school shooting in Uvalde, Kimberly Mata-Rubio had never been on a plane or given a public speech or scolded a U.S. senator right there in his office. A year in the life of a grieving mother.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Stormy Morse lost two partners to gun suicide. 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Hours in an Oakland Dive Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s nothing like walking into a pub and sitting down at an empty stool where your regular order awaits you. You have been seen; it&#8217;s a singular feeling of camaraderie and community. Club 2101, a dive bar in Oakland California, opens around 8 am each day. For <em>The Oaklandside<\/em>, Azucena Rasilla profiles a 16-hour-day in the life of the 80-year-old haunt, a story as colorful as the dedicated regulars who frequent the establishment, many of them captured in evocative photos by Sarahbeth Maney.<\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48891,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=OJs4zp25Lqo&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260811152154\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=OJs4zp25Lqo&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-12 13:14:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-18 19:43:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-24 05:49:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-08-24 05:49:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:48892,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/oaklandside.org\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/16\\\/club-2101-dimond-district-oakland\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260811152251\\\/https:\\\/\\\/oaklandside.org\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/16\\\/club-2101-dimond-district-oakland\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another regular, Steve Powell, puts on the jukebox\u2019s first song of the day, Stevie Ray Vaughan\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OJs4zp25Lqo\">\u201cTexas Flood,\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;and just as Vaughan\u2019s guitar solo builds, another Breakfast Club member walks in: 71-year-old Kurt Meyer. Perez says Meyer had a health scare a few months ago; Perez is happy to see Meyer get back to his routine of hanging out with the crew.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By 11:30 a.m., the ice chest is in need of a refill and the bar starts to settle down. There are about a dozen people inside, some playing pool, others chatting or reading the newspaper. A few attentively watch the horse races now playing on the TV screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George is the first of the early morning crew to call it quits and catch the bus home. Winn and Altamonte follow shortly after.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll of these regulars are not just customers,\u201d Perez says. \u201cThey are friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/2026\/07\/16\/club-2101-dimond-district-oakland\/?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 show-image image-aligntop ts-2 is-3 is-landscape \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258112\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Read more profiles <\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"257295\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-libby-callaway tag-nashville tag-photography tag-profile tag-ray-di-pietro tag-street-photography tag-the-bitter-southerner category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/07\/22\/ray-dipietro-bitter-southerner\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Accidental Historian<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tLibby Callaway | The Bitter Southerner | May 27, 2026 | 2,592 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p> &#8220;With little fanfare, Ray Di Pietro has attracted tens of thousands of devotees. His images are artfully composed, spontaneous, honest, and, well, kind.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"252185\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-gillian-welch tag-jewly-hight tag-music tag-profile tag-roots-music tag-singer-songwriter tag-the-bitter-southerner category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/04\/01\/gillian-welch-this-land-is-her-land\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Gillian Welch: This Land is Her Land<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tJewly Hight | The Bitter Southerner | April 1, 2026 | 4,801 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;You don\u2019t need to shout it for the entire world, but you need to give hope to the people who need it, who you can speak to.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"193528\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-louisiana tag-lucinda-williams tag-the-bitter-southerner tag-the-south tag-wyatt-williams category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2023\/09\/13\/lucinda-williams-and-the-idea-of-louisiana\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Lucinda Williams and the Idea of Louisiana<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tWyatt Williams | The Bitter Southerner | September 4, 2023 | 6,303 words \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;But if you asked for an explanation why I love this place, the only answer would be just the same as why I hate it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Very few Oakland establishments open before noon. 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Expand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahead of the 40th anniversary of <em>Stand By Me<\/em>, Alec Joyner takes up Rob Reiner&#8217;s classic film and considers it from a few dozen angles. It&#8217;s a canny piece of critical writing on time, memory, masculinity, and tenderness, forces that often work against each other. (Joyner doesn&#8217;t raise the subject of Reiner&#8217;s violent death last year, though he pauses briefly on Chris, a character &#8220;freakishly knifed to death . . . trying to break up a fight.&#8221;) <em>Stand By Me<\/em>&#8216;s two days of summer are a &#8220;vital pause&#8221; in the life of its characters, a &#8220;portal . . . into the expanse of time.&#8221; Here, Joyner illuminates that pause, and captures some of its elusive grace.<\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48890,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.brightwalldarkroom.com\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/27\\\/moment-expand\\\/?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Stand by Me<\/em>&nbsp;was slapped with an R rating, for the boys\u2019 profanity, as well as the prominence of child abuse and death. This may have hampered ticket sales, but it also made it the first R-rated movie that many \u201980s and \u201990s kids saw. It made it a fitting rite of passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, there\u2019s something lamentable in the verdict, the MPAA telling a faulty story much like the fictional adults of Castle Rock. How many blockbusters have promoted horrendous violence, only to make the PG-13 grade because they feel safely unreal?&nbsp;<em>Stand by Me<\/em>&nbsp;was received as dangerous because its horrors and its dirt live at home.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightwalldarkroom.com\/2026\/07\/27\/moment-expand\/?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles is-style-borders wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 ts-2 is-style-borders\"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258108\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Let&#8217;s go to the movies!<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"257533\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-anthony-breznican tag-comedy tag-comic-con tag-esquire tag-mel-brooks tag-movies category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/07\/28\/spaceballs-rick-moranis-comic-con\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\u201cSpaceballs: The Clickbait\u201d\u2014Inside the Return of Rick Moranis at Comic-Con<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Breznican | Esquire | July 27, 2026| 3,494 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u201cMoranis gets lost and found, Mel Brooks stays mint-in-the-box, and Josh Gad IS <em>Ebenezer<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"257163\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-acting tag-actors tag-annakeara-stinson tag-dirty-harry tag-family tag-harpers-bazaar tag-hollywood tag-models tag-mothers tag-movies tag-parents category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/07\/17\/diana-davidson-dirty-harry\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">My Mother Died On Screen But Survived Hollywood<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tAnnakeara Stinson | Harper&#8217;s Bazaar | July 16, 2026 | 2,192 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;Making sense of a complicated family legacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"255624\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-architecture tag-books tag-cars tag-chicago tag-chicago-magazine tag-cinema tag-design tag-ferris-bueller tag-film tag-highland-park tag-jason-klamm tag-john-hughes tag-movies category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/06\/15\/ferris-bueller-car-crash-scene\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\u2018You Killed the Car\u2019<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tJason Klamm | Chicago Magazine | June 9, 2026 | 5,185 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A Ferrari and a distinctive Highland Park home combined for an iconic scene in Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;40 notes on Rob Reiner and <em>Stand By Me<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Alec Joyner | Bright Wall\/Dark Room | July 27, 2026 | 3,910 words","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15973],"tags":[29135,27177,3591,23427,303,1025,304,389,29136,29137,17941,897],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[15505],"class_list":["post-258108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick","tag-alec-joyner","tag-bright-wall-dark-room","tag-cinema","tag-directors","tag-films","tag-masculinity","tag-movies","tag-oregon","tag-rob-reiner","tag-stand-by-me","tag-stephen-king","tag-time","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Moment, Expand - Longreads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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for the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sam Roberts | Longreads | August 11, 2026 | 4,862 words (20 minutes)<\/em><\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" 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05:34:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-09-23 05:34:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:48889,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/bookshop.org\\\/p\\\/books\\\/are-they-dead-yet-the-art-of-the-obit-sam-roberts\\\/fd134cdf9040572f?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-border has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">This is an excerpt from <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/are-they-dead-yet-9781639733651\/?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Are They Dead Yet?<\/a><\/em> by Sam Roberts, which was published on August 11, 2026, by Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Tuck Everlasting<\/em> is a cautionary tale about a family of the same surname who, by inadvertently discovering the proverbial Fountain of Youth, is forced to reconcile with eternity. When I was assigned to write the obituary of the book&#8217;s author, Natalie Babbitt, I wondered whether she had continued pondering immortality herself. It turned out she had. Not surprisingly, her own take on eternal life echoed that of the fictional family patriarch, Angus Tuck. &#8220;I think that living forever would be a terrible thing,&#8221; I quoted her as saying in her <em>Times<\/em> obituary. &#8220;It would be boring, sad and lonely.&#8221; Babbitt died when she was 84. But Tuck and her other novels endure as Babbitt&#8217;s legacy for readers. So does my obituary, which in 2016 revealed her motivation to become an author: She was inspired to write <em>Tuck<\/em>, she said, when her four-year-old daughter woke from a nap crying because she was scared of dying. Babbitt had intended to become an illustrator, not an author, but pivoted after taking one writing course in college. She had enrolled because her husband hoped to become a novelist and she wanted to understand the challenges he faced.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=678%2C1024&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-257982\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6621275090635776;width:234px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=678%2C1024&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 678w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=768%2C1160&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=1017%2C1536&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1017w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=1356%2C2048&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1356w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=1200%2C1813&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=780%2C1178&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=400%2C604&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?resize=706%2C1067&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651.jpg?w=1688&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1688w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/longreads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781639733651-678x1024.jpg?w=370&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Buy on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Are-They-Dead-Yet-Roberts\/dp\/1639733655?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/are-they-dead-yet-the-art-of-the-obit-sam-roberts\/fd134cdf9040572f?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bookshop<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back at the <em>Daily News<\/em>, obituaries weren&#8217;t the best way to achieve immortality. We mostly ran one-paragraph squibs for members of the paper&#8217;s family, of printers, pressmen, and their immediate relatives. Instead, like most tabloids, the <em>News<\/em> thrived on the reported details of murders, assassinations, and suicides. Few news stories generated more of a sensation than death in all its dimensions. No less an authority once defined &#8220;news&#8221; than the ancient newspaper deliverer\u2014a beloved man known as Bo Gee, who was decades too old to be described as a news<em>boy<\/em>\u2014weaving up Second Avenue with a wire shopping cart brimming with Chinese-language newspapers, calling out the headlines as he delivered the papers to Chinese bars and restaurants on Manhattan&#8217;s East Side. He began his route in Chinatown, where the papers were printed. Subscribers on Manhattan&#8217;s Upper East Side were often a day or two behind the headlines because the last stop on his evening route depended largely on the number of drinks he had finagled from bartenders along the way before he was too wobbly to walk any farther. When a colleague of mine, the columnist Jimmy Breslin (who described him as &#8220;a small, thirsty man&#8221;), asked him which headlines sold the most papers, he responded unhesitatingly. He didn&#8217;t need a public opinion poll or a focus group of readers or a real-time digital analysis of clickbait: Two were surefire circulation boosters. One was <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">war!<\/span> The other: <span style=\"font-variant:small-caps;\">big guy dies!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taken separately, obits constitute an individual&#8217;s legacy. In aggregate, they can capture the social and cultural currency of an era. Which people are worth remembering? Which values are worth celebrating? How do we measure success and failure, good and evil, achievement and defeat, social rank and professional standing? How many of the one hundred thousand people now immortalized in the periodically printed historical compilation <em>Who Was Who<\/em> were deemed worthy of obituaries at the time of their death? How many of the more than 33,000 contemporary notables included in the latest editions of <em>Who&#8217;s Who<\/em> will get obituaries when they die? (That the titles of those reference books don&#8217;t include question marks suggests that the listings themselves are indisputable, a questionable supposition when the price of inclusion by some publishers seems to be for the &#8220;whos&#8221; to buy at least one copy of the book. An entry for Michael Fowler Cullis, a former British diplomat, describes his recreation as &#8220;writing obituaries for friends.&#8221;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People want to be remembered, and we want to remember them, or, at least, we do. &#8220;Obituaries commemorate a life at the point where it is completed by death. Yet the completion is also depletion, in the sense that the life is constructed as meaningful precisely at the point where it stops,&#8221; Professor Clare Brant, who teaches literature and culture at Kings College London, has written. &#8220;They act as the first version of a biography\u2014sometimes the only one, although Wikipedia has closed the gap with each life story seemingly waiting for a death sentence.&#8221; But as valuable as Wikipedia can be, the New York Public Library notes, &#8220;Obituaries provide an important tool to researchers by offering biographical information on individuals that may not be readily available elsewhere. In many cases, the obituary supplies the only biographical data extant on a person.&#8221; Philip Sutton, a genealogy librarian at the library, told Legacy.com, the self-proclaimed world&#8217;s largest commercial provider of online memorials and guest books, that obituaries may reveal the married name of a daughter identified years earlier in the census only by her maiden name; that by identifying an immigrant&#8217;s specific birthplace, obituaries can also invigorate research on a family&#8217;s roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><br>Obituaries are a reminder that when you die, someone else gets the last word on your legacy\u2014or, at least, the first of the last words.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Especially in small towns and midsize cities, local newspaper obituaries bond one generation to the next. By recalling where the deceased went to school and whom they married and who survived them, those obits provide the frames that form a moving picture of continuity, a narrative of cohesion. They describe whether, and how, the departed outpaced their parents in personal and professional achievement, their legacy to contemporary readers, and the promise of their progenitors\u2014grandchildren or great-grandchildren who are still blank slates with the potential to add to the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To me, obituaries evoke the heartrending backstories of the characters in Thornton Wilder&#8217;s play <em>Our Town<\/em>, the unfulfilled promise of Joe Crowell, who got a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated first in his class: &#8220;Goin&#8217; to be a great engineer, Joe was. But the war broke out and he died in France. All that education for nothing.&#8221; Emily is dead, too, but so consumed by nostalgia\u2014before being persuaded that &#8220;live people don&#8217;t understand, do they?&#8221;\u2014that she descends from the town&#8217;s cemetery and wants to return to her past life in Grover&#8217;s Corners, New Hampshire, until the Stage Manager reminds her, &#8220;You not only live it but you watch yourself living it. And as you watch it, you see the thing that they, down there, never know. You see the future. You know what&#8217;s going to happen afterwards.&#8221; &#8220;When I think of an obituary, it&#8217;s as objective as journalism can be, a story on someone&#8217;s life,&#8221; Holly Shreve Gilbert, a journalism instructor at Oakland University who was the interim president of the Funeral Consumers Information Society, told Molly Birnbaum of <em>Atlas Obscura<\/em>. But &#8220;hyper-local journalism is dying, and so is the obituary of the local person.&#8221; Gilbert added, &#8220;Now, if it&#8217;s on Legacy.com or Facebook or a blog, we&#8217;re basically whitewashing everyone&#8217;s lives. We&#8217;re all <em>happy<\/em>. Everyone is <em>happy<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, not everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Obituaries are a reminder that when you die, someone else gets the last word on your legacy\u2014or, at least, the first of the last words. And for all the <em>beloved<\/em> and <em>respected<\/em> and <em>cherished<\/em> and <em>valued<\/em> that punctuate paid obituaries, don&#8217;t forget that families can try to perpetuate irreverent descriptions unilaterally to settle scores when one is no longer in a position to retaliate or respond. In Shakespeare&#8217;s <em>Macbeth<\/em>, Malcolm declaims of the repentant Thane of Cawdor, who was executed for treason, &#8220;Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.&#8221; If the Thane got the benefit of ambiguity, Florence Harrelson of Chelsea, Maine, had no such luck when she died in 2024 and her daughter, Christina Novak, placed a paid obituary in the <em>Kennebec Journal<\/em>. Wasting no words, the four-line obit read that the 65-year-old Henderson died &#8220;without family by her side due to burnt bridges and a wake of destruction left in her path.&#8221; It continued, &#8220;Florence did not want an obituary or anyone including family to know she died. That&#8217;s because even in death, she wanted those she terrorized to still be living in fear looking over their shoulders. So, this isn&#8217;t so much an obituary but more of a public service announcement.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2023, Gayle Harvey Heckman took the trouble to announce the death of her mother, Linda Lernal Stull, in her Michigan hometown newspaper, the <em>Three Rivers Commercial-News<\/em>, even though they hadn&#8217;t spoken in 24 years. &#8220;As a mother, Lernal was violent, hateful and cruel,&#8221; Heckman wrote. &#8220;She physically, mentally, emotionally, verbally and financially abused Gayle.&#8221; After going into excruciating detail, the obituary concluded, &#8220;Gayle and her family forgive Lernal and hope that she has found peace. They also hope to find peace within themselves. Lernal will not be missed by Gayle or her family. They all understand that the world is a much better place without her.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blunt isn&#8217;t always bad. If writing can be a cathartic, it can also offer an object lesson. In 2015, a nine-hundred-word paid obituary in Maine&#8217;s <em>Bangor Daily News<\/em> (down-easters seem less inhibited about publicly evaluating their kin) began, &#8220;Coleen Sheran Singer (born Coleen Sheran Clark) would have turned 33 this August 31, but she died in Lewiston in an unsuspecting suburban professional couple&#8217;s home of a heroin overdose on the morning of December 25, 2014.&#8221; The obit was written by Singer&#8217;s former husband. It detailed her considerable assets\u2014intellectually gifted, creative, and spirited\u2014without concealing her hefty baggage as a woman who was addicted and suffering from borderline behavioral disorder. Brent Singer attributed the life his former wife led to her broken childhood home but blamed her death on Maine&#8217;s governor for denying her access to the methadone clinic she had relied on to stay straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2008, the <em>Casper Star-Tribune<\/em> in Wyoming reported that Jim Adams died at 53. Weary of soppy obituaries of patients who had courageously struggled against one disease or another until the bitter end, Adams went through his son to provide an unvarnished premortem verdict on his abbreviated life. And he had no compunctions about belatedly exercising personal responsibility and admitting that he lost his battle for less inspiring reasons entirely: &#8220;It was primarily as a result of being stubborn and not following doctor&#8217;s orders or maybe for just living life a little too hard for better than five decades.&#8221; He did lament, however, that he &#8220;was sadly deprived of his final wish, which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a date.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2019, the family of Joe Heller (not that one) playfully celebrated his life in the <em>Hartford Courant<\/em>. They described him as &#8220;a frequent shopper at the Essex Dump&#8221; who &#8220;left his family with a house full of crap, 300 pounds of birdseed and dead houseplants.&#8221; Heller was so practiced a consummate napper that &#8220;there wasn&#8217;t an occasion too formal or an event too dour that Joe didn&#8217;t interrupt with his apnea and voluminous snoring.&#8221; The obituary added, &#8220;The family is seeking donations to offset the expense of publishing an exceedingly long obituary which would have really pissed Joe off.&#8221; (It then appealed generously for contributions to the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hellers weren&#8217;t kidding. Those paid &#8220;obits&#8221; aren&#8217;t cheap. The <em>New York Times <\/em>doesn&#8217;t accept paid obituaries, but their paid death notices, depending on the edition and the day, cost about $1,000 for a bare-bones nine lines of type and $50 for each additional line, which verbose encomiums and fervent eulogizing can raise into the thousands of dollars. (In memoriam notices in newspapers that wish the departed &#8220;Happy Birthday in Heaven&#8221; remain a testament to the enduring value of print advertising.) While radio and television have generally fallen short in memorializing the dead, there are blogs, zines, and commercial websites devoted to dying, and personal web pages and online videos have all helped democratize death. So far, though, it&#8217;s one area in which even a buzzworthy website can&#8217;t always live up to its name (such as when Michael Jackson&#8217;s death was announced on MichaelJacksonLive.com).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Charlotte Observer<\/em> in North Carolina used to publish brief obituaries of local figures for free\u2014until executives discovered that printing a full page of them daily was costing $350,000 annually for newsprint alone. When the paper imposed a fee, readers revolted; the editors relented in some editions. MyGoodbye.com was started by Stephen Miller (definitely not that one), who grew up next to a cemetery and, after escaping from his bank&#8217;s eightieth-floor office in 2 World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, decided to become an obituarist full-time. Legacy.com partners with hundreds of newspapers and thousands of funeral homes worldwide to account for about 70 percent of the deaths in the United States alone. A prototype called EPOCH\u2014Electronically Preserving Obituaries as Cultural Heritage\u2014created by the Orange County, Florida, Library System enabled people to publish an obit online for free. Another website, MyObits.com, also lets anyone publish a free memorial. Facebook even allows users to designate an executor to manage their profile after they&#8217;ve personally logged off this mortal coil for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>While radio and television have generally fallen short in memorializing the dead, there are blogs, zines, and commercial websites devoted to dying, and personal web pages and online videos have all helped democratize death.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paid death notices have been wielded as much to ward off the living as to get the last word on the dead. In the early 1920s, Audrey Munson, America&#8217;s first supermodel, became so fed up with fame that she tried to fake her death by paying to run a phony death notice in her local upstate New York newspaper. Her gambit failed; she was so celebrated that the clerk she approached refused to accept the advertisement because he recognized her. Rudyard Kipling may have done her one better: When a newspaper reported his death prematurely, he wrote to the editor, &#8220;I&#8217;ve just read that I am dead. Don&#8217;t forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Six months before Oliver Sacks died of cancer at 82 in 2015, the London-born neurologist who lived in Manhattan wrote an op-ed in the <em>New York Times<\/em> that amounted to an auto-obituary. Sacks was galvanized, he wrote, by the eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume, who, learning he was mortally ill at 65, penned a short autobiography in a single day in 1776. &#8220;I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective,&#8221; Sacks wrote. &#8220;There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at &#8216;NewsHour&#8217; every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming.&#8221; He explained that his shifting priorities were influenced less by passion than perspective: &#8220;This is not indifference but detachment\u2014I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelly McMasters, the author of <em>The Leaving Season: A Memoir<\/em>, started writing her obituary when she was 12; she has refreshed it almost annually since then. Her ritual was inspired by an assignment her mother was given while training as a volunteer at a local hospice. &#8220;I usually end up with a gentle accounting of the year, held against all the past ones,&#8221; McMasters wrote in a <em>New York Times<\/em> opinion essay. &#8220;I found many of the accomplishments that felt precious one year were hardly worth a mention the next.&#8221; Her private accounts produced an album of verbal snapshots, unreachable versions of herself that seemed as good as the dead about whom obituaries are otherwise published. &#8220;It seems dreadfully unfair that we wait until after our deaths to write them and never get to read them ourselves,&#8221; McMasters wrote. &#8220;Writing your obituary while you&#8217;re still alive can offer clarity about your life and, mercifully, if you find something lacking, you still have time to revise.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By inspiring the &#8220;Portraits of Grief&#8221; series of intimate minibiographies of the victims of 9\/11 in the <em>New York Times<\/em>, the attack by fanatical al-Qaeda suicide bombers on the World Trade Center in 2001 may inadvertently have made the obituary more egalitarian than any event since the Civil War. These 200-word vignettes with thumbnail photographs weren&#8217;t standard obits or news stories. Volunteer reporters interviewed families and friends of the victims and the missing to sketch some 2,500 hundred profiles. Overseen by Jon Landman and Christine Kay on the Metro Desk, the portraits were published over nearly five months. &#8220;Terrorism rather than the internet democratized the obituary,&#8221; Professor Clare Brant wrote. Roy Harris wrote for the Poynter Institute of the project, &#8220;The portraits identified one aspect of life\u2014a woman gardening, a man taking his daughter to ice-skating lessons, or perhaps indulging in a fondness for cigars.&#8221; The obituarist Nigel Starck said, &#8220;Each day&#8217;s pages would renew a sense of the tragedy&#8217;s scope, while the individual portraits made each person intimately real.&#8221; Our exercise in mining the unremarkable found a larger-than-life common denominator, one that challenges the novelist W. P. Kinsella&#8217;s conclusion that &#8220;the lives of ninety percent of the population are so dull that no one would care in the least about them, the lives of the remaining ten percent are so bizarre that no one would believe them.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the deaths in those &#8220;Portraits of Grief&#8221; were preceded by chivalrous acts of courage and self-sacrifice. Those heroics worked their way into news articles. The portraits were not about how people died, not about their last moments of life, no matter how gutsy, but how they lived and what their loss meant to their family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The gruesome, grisly details were superfluous, unlike an earlier obituary style in which the <em>how<\/em> sometimes seemed to predominate over the <em>who<\/em>, <em>what<\/em>, <em>when<\/em>, <em>where<\/em>, and <em>why<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Louisa May Alcott died in 1888, for example, the <em>New York Times<\/em> explained in the first paragraph of her obituary, &#8220;For a long time Miss Alcott had been ill, suffering from nervous prostration. Last Autumn she appeared to be improving and went to the Highlands to reside with Dr. Rhoda A. Lawrence. She drove from there into town to visit her father on Thursday last, and caught a cold, which on Saturday settled on the base of the brain and developed spinal meningitis.&#8221; The first five paragraphs of Teddy Roosevelt&#8217;s <em>Times<\/em> obituary in 1919 left nothing about the cause of death to the reader&#8217;s imagination: &#8220;His physicians said that the immediate cause of death was a clot of blood which detached itself from a vein and entered the lungs.&#8221; In 1892, reporting the death of Caroline Harrison, the wife of President Benjamin Harrison, the <em>Atlanta Constitution <\/em>described her corpse in clinical detail: &#8220;She shows in her emaciation the effects of the long wasting illness of eight months that has reduced her large, matronly figure to a thin, frail form.&#8221; Then again, as recently as 2000, the paper, now called the <em>Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em>, ran an obituary by Kay Powell of a local church-choir tenor, who had also written a manuscript on the philosophy of religion, beginning this way: &#8220;David Robeson Morgan was a brilliant man whose future looked good, until he had a frontal lobotomy in 1947.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;A writer may bear the same name as the subject of his memoir, but he is hardly the same person,&#8221; Robert W. Fuller, the former college president and self-styled dignitarian, surmised in the epilogue to his own memoir. &#8220;He has long since morphed into the subject&#8217;s successor, and then the successor of the successor.&#8221; Bridget Fowler, a sociology professor at the University of Glasgow and the author of <em>The Obituary as Collective Memory<\/em>, wrote, &#8220;The auto\/biography as such is under the expressive control of its author and is thus as profound (or simplistic) as he or she is. In contrast, one characteristic of the obituary is that these lives are selected as particularly memorable, distinguished, or newsworthy.&#8221; She adds, &#8220;The obituary offers the rare accolade of public recognition, the first step toward posthumous memory. Yet it is not just a <em>store of value<\/em>, it is also a <em>measure<\/em> of value: the obituary as a biographical form illuminates the social reality of dominance and distinction, whilst only rarely shedding light on the world of subordination.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The onset of the AIDS epidemic presented editors with a sensitive dilemma: Merely having the virus implied vulnerable behavior\u2014either drug use or homosexuality\u2014that society was far from accepting. In 1986, the fashion designer Perry Ellis died of AIDS at age 46, as stated in his obituary in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>. In the <em>New York Times <\/em>and the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>, his cause of his death was reported to be viral encephalitis. In early May 1987, Charles Ludlam, a playwright, parody actor, and admired figure in New York&#8217;s East Village underground arts scene, withdrew from the New York Shakespeare Festival&#8217;s scheduled Central Park production of <em>Titus Andronicus<\/em>. On May 28, Ludlam&#8217;s publicist announced that he had died of pneumonia. The <em>New York Times<\/em>&#8216;s Jeremy Gerard assumed correctly that the pneumonia was a complication of AIDS, and believed the refusal to acknowledge the disease compounded the tragedy of Ludlam&#8217;s death by validating the stigma attached to gay people, who were among its most prominent victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Leah Rosenzweig reported in <em>Slate<\/em>, for hours Gerard desperately tried to persuade Ludlam&#8217;s parents to confirm the actual cause but failed. &#8220;They were working-class Catholics from Long Island; as far as they were concerned, their son had died a shameful death,&#8221; Gerard recalled. But fifteen minutes before his deadline, the family&#8217;s lawyer called back. The Ludlams agreed to confirm the cause. On May 29, 1987, Gerard&#8217;s obituary of Charles Ludlam was the first that identified AIDS as the cause of death in the <em>Times<\/em>, on the front page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Obituaries contribute to national myths or collective memories of contemporary heroes by symbolically &#8216;reflecting what, in death, was most valued about the lives of individual citizens,'&#8221; Janice Hume wrote. &#8220;An obituary distills, publishes, and thus legitimizes something more abstract than mere facts. It also reveals values, highlighted in the attributes of the deceased, and should be examined not just as an indifferent chronicle but as a commemoration, a representation of an ideal, with its own distinct contribution to the understanding of history. Those ideals, part of obituary coverage, become safeguarded by their publication.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To quantify those values, Lux Narayan, a social media analyst, conducted a statistical survey of some 2,000 <em>New York Times<\/em> news obituaries that were published in 2015 and 2016. Not surprisingly, the fields of academics, science, politics, film, theater, music, dance, and art predominated among those deemed worthy. On average, they achieved the thing that made them worthy of a <em>Times<\/em> obituary when they were 37 years old\u2014athletes more likely in their twenties, politicians in their forties. The prototypical obituary subject lived to be 81, which meant 44 years had elapsed between the accomplishment and, in the cases of the many obscure and quirky characters, their public aggrandizement. &#8220;Talk about having to be patient,&#8221; Narayan said. In a TED Talk, he explained his obsessive reading of the daily paper over scrambled eggs this way: &#8220;If you think about it, the front page of the newspaper is usually bad news and cues man&#8217;s failures. An instance where bad news cues accomplishment is at the end of the paper, in the obituaries.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What were the most common denominators among those obituarized, and what do they suggest society\u2014or, more to the point, the <em>Times<\/em>\u2014valued? If your name was John, you didn&#8217;t necessarily have a better chance of being the subject of an obituary, but it was more likely that a man whose first name was John would appear in one. That&#8217;s not so surprising, given that John (along with James, Robert, Michael, and David) has been among the most popular names for American men born in the last 100 years. Narayan was struck by another commonality, though. The language-processing program revealed that the one word that leapt out everywhere was <em>help<\/em>, as a noun or verb. The most universal value, it seemed, that elevated the famous and not-so into those the <em>Times<\/em> editors considered worthy of obituaries was how much people helped. &#8220;They made a positive dent in the fabric of life,&#8221; Narayan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>For a family member, an obit represents an imprimatur, validation by association, a keepsake that maintains their heritage and, perhaps for a generation, prevents their own legacy from vanishing like a walnut in the batter of eternity.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Journalists understand, or should, that statistical surveys of subjective material are fertile ground for as many question marks as answers. Patrick Nolan, a sociologist at the University of South Carolina, wondered whether the cult of celebrity has blossomed over the last century, as the anecdotal evidence suggests. Has the public become so starstruck that somebodies in less glamorous professions have been overshadowed? One way to measure the trajectory of society&#8217;s fascination quotient, he figured, was to enlist <em>New York Times<\/em> obituaries as a cultural barometer. Nolan&#8217;s canvas was every &#8220;notable death&#8221; that was published in the <em>Times<\/em> during the entire twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Most striking are the simultaneous increases in celebrity obituaries and declines in religious obituaries,&#8221; Nolan and Timothy J. Bertoni reported in the journal <em>Sociation Today<\/em>. &#8220;They document the increasing secularization and hedonism of American culture at a time when personal income was rising and public concern was shifting away from the basic issues of survival. The magnitude of these trends is seismic. While the Greeks may have looked to their gods for guidance and entertainment, we&#8217;ve turned increasingly to our celebrities\u2014entertainers and athletes.&#8221; After dividing the century into quarters, Nolan and a doctoral student, Timothy Bertoni, randomly selected 20 days from 1900, 1925, 1950, 1975, and 2000 and ranked the professions of the dead by the number of obituaries run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of obits of entertainers and athletes, grouped together, rose, from seventh most in 1900 to fifth in 1925, third in 1950, and first in 1975. By 2000, they remained in first place and accounted for 28 percent of obituaries. In 2000, the researchers didn&#8217;t find a single notable religious figure who was memorialized. The category had plummeted from fourth place when the 20th century began to last when the millennium ended. During the same period, the number of obituaries of notable individuals from the fields of business, finance, manufacturing, and industry declined by half. Americans, Janice Hume has written in her study of grief, &#8220;value each other and, indeed, value life for collective reasons. They value a long, robust, and full life, a life that is uniquely American, and a life that ensures social preservation. A typical Victorian obituary would carry the statement, &#8216;in life we are in the midst of death,&#8217; but as this study suggests, at least on the obituary pages of historic mainstream American newspapers, in death we are in the midst of life.&#8221; Nigel Starck, too, argues that obituaries provide a glue that bonds society not in grief but in an aspirational reevaluation of our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;There is nothing inherently gloomy about the newspaper obituary page,&#8221; he writes. &#8220;Done well, it should capture life rather than wallow in death.&#8221; Clare Brant recalled her euphoric reaction to reading of the death of Martin Wells, the grandson of the English writer H. G. Wells, in the <em>Guardian<\/em> in 2009. He was an 80-year-old biologist with a passion for cephalopods and was also a novelist, painter, and yachtsman. &#8220;Though marine biologists don&#8217;t have dry lives in a literal sense, and people who love octopus usually have a sense of play, he was really lively,&#8221; Brant wrote. \u201cI rejoiced that an academic could have such a full, happy and entertaining life\u2014there\u2019s hope for the rest of us! It wasn\u2019t that I wanted to know him or even to have known him, but I was glad he\u2019d existed, and I still want not to forget the implications of his existence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that was an obituary about a total stranger. For a family member, an obit represents an imprimatur, validation by association, a keepsake that maintains their heritage and, perhaps for a generation, prevents their own legacy from vanishing like a walnut in the batter of eternity. \u201cThe greatest investigative piece I ever wrote when I thought I was really important never survived more than a few weeks in terms of being kept around,\u201d said Jim Nicholson, the Philadelphia journalist who regularly chronicled deaths of the common man, the nobodies, as he put it. \u201cBut these obituaries, they\u2019re laminated. They\u2019re put under glass. They\u2019re hung on walls or in family Bibles. In fact, they\u2019re even put into the inside coat pocket of the deceased. And, yeah, they\u2019ll be around long after you and I are gone.\u201d Nicholson\u2019s obituaries were indelible. \u201cMy words give readers thousands of moments to remember of little lives lived well,\u201d he said. \u201cPerhaps I even gave them the secrets of how to live one well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What readers cherish about obituaries, Casey Cep wrote in the <em>New Yorker<\/em>, is \u201cthe opportunity to celebrate one\u2019s own good fortune at still being alive, to keep tabs on death\u2014who it comes for, at what age, and how much we have in common with the deceased\u2014and also to trace an immensely compact narrative arc. So much of the news is ongoing and unsettled, but obituaries by definition have a kind of alluring finality.\u201d In the two weeks after Victoria Chang\u2019s mother died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2015, the Los Angeles\u2013based poet feverishly wrote seventy poems. Her goal: to recast the newspaper obituary to identify what had been lost (\u201ccivility, language and the future,\u201d she wrote) and death\u2019s cultural impact on the living. She described writing an obituary as a wake-up call. \u201cThis person is dead,\u201d Chang wrote. \u201cYou\u2019re alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-border has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Sam Roberts. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Are-They-Dead-Yet-Roberts\/dp\/1639733655?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/are-they-dead-yet-the-art-of-the-obit-sam-roberts\/fd134cdf9040572f?src=longreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buy on Bookshop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sam Roberts, a fifty-year veteran of New York journalism, is an obituaries reporter and formerly the Urban Affairs correspondent at the <\/em>New York Times<em>. He has hosted the<\/em> New York Times Close Up<em> on TV and the podcast <\/em>Only in New York<em>, anthologized in a book of the same name. He is the author of <\/em>The New Yorkers<em>, <\/em>A History of New York in 27 Buildings<em>, <\/em>A History of New York in 101 Objects<em>, <\/em>Grand Central<em>, and<\/em> The Brother<em>, among other books. He has written for the<\/em> New York Times Magazine<em>, the <\/em>New Republic<em>, <\/em>New York<em> magazine, <\/em>Vanity Fair<em>, <\/em>Foreign Affairs<em>, and <\/em>Air Mail<em>. Before joining the <\/em>Times<em> in 1983, he was the youngest city editor of the <\/em>New York Daily News<em>. He lives in New York with his wife.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A <em>New York Times<\/em> veteran considers the art of the obituary and how words give shape to legacies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":257970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"A <em>New York Times<\/em> veteran considers the art of the obituary and how words give shape to legacies.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"republication-tracker-tool-hide-widget":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15974],"tags":[735,44,1131,22031,48,29118,6605,3477,3908,26807,29117,271,1840,489],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[29116],"class_list":["post-257969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-art","tag-death","tag-excerpt","tag-legacy","tag-loss","tag-memorial","tag-memories","tag-obituaries","tag-obituary","tag-remembering","tag-sam-roberts","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-writers","tag-writing","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Speaking 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Anthony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Saeed Jones gets a Lyft ride with Mister Anthony in New Orleans, he has no idea he&#8217;s in for brief but deep connection that will occupy his mind long after the trip is over. Anthony is a Black elder originally from Mississippi, &#8220;old enough to be retired but still taking gigs.&#8221; As the man recalls the racism he experienced in the Magnolia State, Jones is reminded of his own experiences, his own trepidation. In all his travels, Jones reveals that Mississippi is the only place he has ever felt scared for his safety as a Black man. <\/p>\n<span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:48877,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/oxfordamerican.org\\\/magazine\\\/issue-133-134-summer-fall-2026\\\/mister-anthony?src=longreads&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe to distract myself from the question of loneliness, I\u2019m working to chart the depths of my ride with Mister Anthony. I\u2019m interested in how people unexpectedly find one another. I refuse to romanticize the labor conditions and racial terror, for example, that played a role in introducing him to me. If America was doing right by someone like Mister Anthony, I would not have met him today. I know that fact like I know the blade of his laughter. But I am grateful I met him. Maybe it\u2019s easier, especially for men of his generation and journey, to set one\u2019s burdens down with a receptive stranger. Or maybe Mister Anthony is just like that with everyone and I happen to be a poet riding co-pilot with deep feelings. I want to save Mister Anthony\u2019s life. I want to make his life better. Writing about him won\u2019t do either, but I bow before him all the same.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfordamerican.org\/magazine\/issue-133-134-summer-fall-2026\/mister-anthony?src=longreads\" style=\"padding-top:15px;padding-right:15px;padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:15px;font-size:20px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-3 show-image image-aligntop ts-2 is-3 is-landscape \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"258050\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>More picks from <em>Oxford American<\/em><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"250360\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-american-literature tag-appalachia tag-elsa-pearl tag-oxford-american tag-rattlesnake tag-timber-rattlesnake category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/02\/20\/rattlesnakes-at-my-door\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rattlesnakes at My Door<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tElsa Pearl | Oxford American | February 19, 2026 | 8,105 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;A nonfiction account of an American crime.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"238408\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-gambling tag-greyhound-racing tag-michelle-orange tag-oxford-american tag-west-virginia category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2025\/05\/28\/the-tangled-past-and-unsettled-future-of-greyhound-racing-in-west-virginia\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Tangled Past and Unsettled Future of Greyhound Racing in West Virginia<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tMichelle Orange | Oxford American | May 23, 2025 | 9,434 words\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;In the home of America\u2019s last active tracks, tradition and uncertainty run neck and neck.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"219302\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-florida tag-michael-adno tag-oxford-american tag-science category-editors-pick type-post\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2024\/06\/12\/the-worm-charmers\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Worm Charmers<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-post-subtitle newspack-post-subtitle--in-homepage-block\">\n\t\t\t\t\tMichael Adno | Oxford American | June 4, 2024 | 4,991 words \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>&#8220;They call it worm grunting.&#8221;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .entry-wrapper -->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Mister Anthony could be my grandfather, if my grandfather, a retired Memphis city bus driver, was still alive, still driving strangers from one stop to 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