The first time I admitted that yes, I was related to Francis Scott Key, it came as a shock, even to me, because, of course, I was lying. While my other college friends experimented with drugs and God, I experimented with genealogy. Soon, I found myself trying to learn to pretend to be a writer […]
Quotes
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Author Porochista Khakpour on New Age Treatments for Lyme Disease, and ‘Mind Over Matter’
As someone who’s twice been diagnosed with Lyme Disease, I’ve read an awful lot about it. The more I read, the more confused I am; for every long, boring article about antibiotic treatments, there are two or three about widely varying alternative cures. The Last Illusion author Porochista Khakpour has been living with Lyme for […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘A Few Words About Breasts’ From Nora Ephron
I was about six months younger than everyone else in my class, and so for about six months after it began, for six months after my friends had begun to develop (that was the word we used, develop), I was not particularly worried. I would sit in the bathtub and look down at my breasts […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Booze at Breakfast
The weisswurst frühstück Obama was enjoying is a beery Bavarian stalwart: boiled sausages with mustard, freshly baked pretzels and a cold weissbier, the operative word here being cold. Alcohol in the morning must be fresh and zippy. A bit of fizz, something dry, a hint of sweetness, a sharp kick – as drinks writer Henry Jeffreys puts […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz Freed Rock and Roll
Always the kind of personality who cut through false distinctions, Coleman could boast a lineage both in punk rock and, with his collective-improvisation aesthetic, in the very music that punk rock often claimed to set out to destroy, hippie psychedelia and stadium rock. Bassist Jack Bruce of Cream, who had a jazz background, told the […]
Posted inQuotes
The Celebrities of Vine Take the Stage
Reporter Ellen Cushing goes behind the scenes on DigiTour, a concert? performance? party? tour that brings seven young social media phenoms and their hundreds of thousands of fans together.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
What Jacques Pepin Would Eat for His Last Meal
Brett Martin in GQ, writing about his life-changing meeting with Jacques Pepin.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Arabs, Jews, and Israel’s Pork Industry
Surprisingly, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and a staunch secularist, opposed pork consumption. He viewed eating pork as a recent Jewish diasporic cultural development that Israelis needed to shed in order to forge a united Israeli identity. In 1962 the Knesset officially outlawed the breeding and selling of pigs, except for in Arab-Christian areas, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Podcasts, Quotes
The Time Al Letson Got What He Wanted
Radio producer, writer, and storytelling all-’rounder Al Letson (State of the Re:Union, Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal) recently launched a new podcast called Errthang. The show is a personal outlet for Letson’s stories and diverse passions — a venue for “errthang” he wants to do. Kicking off in style, the first episode is built around the story of […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How an ‘American Girl’ Character Is Born
The company is meticulous when it comes to product development, particularly for the BeForever line. “It takes about three years to launch a new character because you do a lot of research,” explains Opland. The BeForever books tackle a range of difficult issues—Addy Walker is an escaped slave, Samantha speaks out against child labor—and so American […]