In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s memoir about the death of her husband and her daughter’s sudden sickness, Didion describes being paralyzed by memories of her family triggered during mundane circumstances. She calls this experience “the vortex effect.” Matt Zoller Seitz’s Salon essay, “All The Things That Remind Me Of Her,” shows the […]
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The Searchers
The Searchers Zhou’s nightmare began when he was 6. He and his older brother — Zhou thinks his name was Chengjiang — were leaving school when they met a couple who claimed to be friends of their parents. The man and the woman said they were there to take them home. They asked Zhou what […]
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The Searchers
The Searchers Zhou’s nightmare began when he was 6. He and his older brother — Zhou thinks his name was Chengjiang — were leaving school when they met a couple who claimed to be friends of their parents. The man and the woman said they were there to take them home. They asked Zhou what […]
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The Justin Bieber of Bullfighting
The Justin Bieber of Bullfighting “The bull is my best friend,” Michelito said the night before. “He’s the one I’m always thinking about, always focusing on.” But it’s hard to square that with what he said next. “There is no real relationship between a bullfighter and a bull, because one is a rational animal while […]
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The Justin Bieber of Bullfighting
The Justin Bieber of Bullfighting “The bull is my best friend,” Michelito said the night before. “He’s the one I’m always thinking about, always focusing on.” But it’s hard to square that with what he said next. “There is no real relationship between a bullfighter and a bull, because one is a rational animal while […]
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The Awl: A Q&A with a Vacuum Cleaner Salesman
The Awl: A Q&A with a Vacuum Cleaner Salesman They’re like, “You sold to an old woman.” And, I mean, she was 90. She was. But I definitely try and make sure that old people want it. “You want this right?” I say that. But the neighbors were like, “I would never sell to somebody […]
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I said, ‘What’s your — pardon me — your fucking plan, then, if you don’t like this?’” “‘We don’t like—’ I said, ‘Don’t tell me what you don’t like! Tell me how you’re going to stop the North Korean nuclear program.’ ‘But we wouldn’t do it this way—’ ‘Stop! What are you going to do?’ […]
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Anyone who has lived through the global bubble and bust of the last few years may wonder what’s so great about a consumer society. In the United States, the idea that we have reoriented our economy toward consumption and don’t make things anymore has become a standard lament, not a sign of progress. But China […]
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Emerging from his haze, Sean O’Keefe felt a bizarre sensation in his mouth. Like chewing on gravel without taking a bite. He explored that mystery with his tongue until it registered: His mouth was awash with his own broken teeth. The Waiting: Survivors of the Ted Stevens plane crash in Alaska wondered if help would reach […]
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A song called “A Freak Like Me Needs Company,” for the eight-stilettoed Arachne and her Furies to sing near the end of the show, was apparently less right. “I thought, and still do, that it would be a hit,” says Bono. “A percussive eighties Paradise Garage dance piece with a fantastic hook. Julie was like, […]