A Shit Writing Day

All of a writer’s fears, in one place. Ford reflects on writing out of a hole, and what keeps him from “going full-bore bananacakes” with his work:

“I have dug a number of limbic trenches, mental pathways that lead to stress and anxiety. I have a mixed (but steadily improving) record on substances, especially food. And if I allow the book and my writing to become a proxy for myself, as a sort of external version of my identity, I’m in trouble. But if I let these things be products, if I let them exist outside of me, don’t worry how people react to them, just let what wants to happen, happen—well, then I stand a chance of doing good work, without having to disgorge that work from myself seppuku-style using a rusty sword with a hilt of guilt and a dull blade forged from procrastination. That is, I need to make writing something besides a daily referendum on my worth as a human. Which it has become, for reasons.”

Author: Paul Ford
Source: Medium
Published: Sep 21, 2013
Length: 10 minutes (2,547 words)

Last Meals

Our relationships between food and death. A history of the last meal:

“In America, where the death rows—like the prisons generally—are largely filled with men from the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder, last-meal requests are dominated by the country’s mass-market comfort foods: fries, soda, fried chicken, pie. Sprinkled in this mix is a lot of what social scientists call ‘status foods’—steak, lobster, shrimp—the kinds of foods that in popular culture conjure up the image of affluence. Every once in a while, though, a request harkens back to what, in the Judeo-Christian West, is the original last meal—the Last Supper, when Jesus Christ, foreseeing his death on the cross, dined one final time with his disciples. Jonathan Wayne Nobles, who was executed in Texas in 1998 for stabbing to death two young women, requested the Eucharist sacrament. Nobles had converted to Catholicism while incarcerated, becoming a lay member of the clergy, and made what was by all accounts a sincere and extended show of remorse while strapped to the gurney. He sang “Silent Night” as the chemicals were released into his veins.”

Published: Sep 19, 2013
Length: 17 minutes (4,397 words)

The Honey Launderers: Uncovering the Largest Food Fraud in U.S. History

How a food-trading company based in Germany illegally imported Chinese honey into the U.S.—”the largest food fraud in U.S. history”:

“ALW relied on a network of brokers from China and Taiwan, who shipped honey from China to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines. The 50-gallon drums would be relabeled in these countries and sent on to the U.S. Often the honey was filtered to remove the pollen, which could help identify its origin. Some of the honey was adulterated with rice sugar, molasses, or fructose syrup.

“In a few cases the honey was contaminated with the residue of antibiotics banned in the U.S. In late 2006 an ALW customer rejected part of Order 995, three container loads of ‘Polish Light Amber,’ valued at $85,000. Testing revealed one container was contaminated with chloramphenicol, an antibiotic the U.S. bans from food. Chinese beekeepers use chloramphenicol to prevent Foulbrood disease, which is widespread and destructive. A deal was made to sell the contaminated honey at a big discount to another customer in Texas, a processor that sold honey to food companies.”

Source: Businessweek
Published: Sep 19, 2013
Length: 10 minutes (2,747 words)

Lone Wolf

The first wild wolf to enter California in more than eighty years sparks a debate about conservation:

“The return of wolves to the West has indeed resulted in a trophic cascade of benefits to the ecological landscape. In Yellowstone, for example, the absence of wolves meant the park’s elk and deer were fat, slow, and stupid. They destroyed streambeds, overgrazed grass, and overbrowsed the shrubs and aspens. When wolves were reintroduced, the days of deer and elk lazing around riparian areas like hoofed couch potatoes were over. Yellowstone’s aspen groves made a comeback, streambeds are in better shape, shady shrubs have increased oxygen levels in creeks and streams, thus improving fish habitats, berries are dropping, seeds are scattering, grasses are growing. A case can be made that wolves are far better wilderness managers than humans will ever be.

“But for Sykes it’s a moral issue as well. ‘For one hundred years, wolves were hounded, hunted, trapped, hacked, and poisoned until every single one was exterminated. They were extirpated in a brutal, vindictive, ignorant campaign,’ he says. ‘I would like to see this wrong righted. I would like to see some compassion and understanding for our most persecuted wildlife.'”

Source: Orion Magazine
Published: Sep 12, 2013
Length: 21 minutes (5,492 words)

College Longreads Pick: ‘The Final Barrier: 50 Years Later, Segregation Still Exists’ by Abbey Crain and Matt Ford, University of Alabama

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 18, 2013

Tomato Can Blues

A small-time fighter’s big-time hoax:

“While Rowan was ferrying drugs in Three Rivers in 2010, before he began cage fighting, he claimed to have lost Gomez’s shipment, maybe worth as much as $80,000. As Rowan told it, a group of thieves jumped him, cracked his ribs and stole the drugs.

“Now, Rowan owed money to impatient people. He tried to lie low, but in January, a group of men beat him up behind Shopko, leaving him with two black eyes, broken ribs and blood on his baseball cap, he told friends at the time.

“Rowan was desperate. Then, while he was watching TV at his girlfriend’s house, a show caught his attention. It was on the Investigation Discovery channel, something about a guy who staged his own death so he could start his life anew.”

Author: Mary Pilon
Published: Sep 18, 2013
Length: 19 minutes (4,812 words)

On Muppets & Merchandise: How Jim Henson Turned His Art into a Business

In 2011, we highlighted an essay called “Weekend at Kermie’s,” by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, published by The Awl. Stevens is now back with a new Muppet-inspired Kindle Serial called “Make Art Make Money,” part how-to, part Jim Henson history:

“The real breakthrough in Henson’s career—the thing that would make him a mogul—was Sesame Street. It debuted in 1969, a good fifteen years into Henson’s television career. Because it taught children across the country, Henson became a household name, and through Sesame Street toys, Henson became a millionaire. In short, merchandizing is the ‘secret’ to Henson’s success. However, licensing toys, to Henson, felt like selling out. Before he became a mogul, he had to find a good reason to do so.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 17, 2013
Length: 16 minutes (4,102 words)

Sexting, Shame and Suicide

Fifteen-year-old Audrie Pott took her own life after nude photos of her were circulated around school by high school classmates. Three boys were later arrested and charged. It’s “a shocking tale of sexual assault in the Digital Age” that’s becoming less uncommon as a number of high-profile cases similar to Pott’s makes headlines while many others go unreported:

“‘It’s a perfect storm of technology and hormones,’ says lawyer Lori Andrews, director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology in Chicago. ‘Teen sexting is all a way of magnifying girls’ fantasies of being a star of their own movies, and boys locked in a room bragging about sexual conquest.’

‘But as of yet the law provides little protection to the rights of those violated. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act effectively means that no Internet provider can be forced to take down content for invading a person’s privacy or even defaming them. ‘I could sue The New York Times for invading my privacy or Rolling Stone for defaming me,’ Andrews says. ‘But I couldn’t sue and get my picture off a website called sluttyseventhgraders.com.’

“The flip side of this ugly trend is that when gang-rape participants and bystanders record and disseminate pictures of an assault, public outrage is inflamed and cops and prosecutors have evidence they can take to court. This can mean rape victims get more justice than in years past. Arguably, the Steubenville rape would never have been prosecuted without the video. However, since so many of the incidents involve juveniles, punishment is neither swift nor certain.”

Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Sep 17, 2013
Length: 24 minutes (6,029 words)

19: The True Story Of The Yarnell Fire

Kyle Dickman, Outside magazine’s associate editor and a former hotshot firefighter, pieces together the final hours of Prescott, Arizona’s Granite Mountain Hotshots, the elite team of firefighters who battled the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30, 2013. Nineteen of the crew’s 20 members would perish:

“The hotshots who’d brought their phones texted or called their loved ones. Another sawyer, Scott Norris, who’d come to Granite Mountain this season after four years on a Forest Service hotshot crew in Payson, Arizona, texted with his girlfriend, Heather.

“Heather: ‘I had a weird dream I proposed to Scott last night.’ Then, ‘Oh, hi. That was meant for Sarah!’

“Scott: ‘I’m a little old fashioned. I think I’d like to be the one to propose.’

“Scott: ‘Just watched a DC3 slurry bomber nearly collide midair with a Sikorsky helicopter.’

“Heather: ‘Holy hell! That certainly would have made the news.’

“Scott: ‘This fire is going to shit burning all over and expected 40+ mile per hour wind gust from t-storm outflow. Possibly going to burn some ranches and houses.’

“And finally, when the fire was racing straight at Donut, Scott texted a final photo of flames filling the valley below them: ‘Holy shit! This thing is running at Yarnell!'”

Source: Outside
Published: Sep 17, 2013
Length: 39 minutes (9,851 words)

‘He’s Our Baby’: What Happens When a Child Is Placed in Foster Care

The opening chapter of To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care, the new book by Cris Beam, as recommended by Longreads contributing editor Julia Wick. Thanks to Cris and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sharing it with the Longreads community:

“In this time period, which can be months or many years, everybody gets a different social worker—the child, the biological parents, and the foster parents. In this time, more lawyers step in and draw up more plans: How often will the parent see the child; what will visitations be like? Where will visits be held; what are the milestones toward reunification? Throughout this, a judge, who in New York City sees about fifty family court cases every day, makes the binding decisions as to who must do what by when.”

Author: Cris Beam
Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 16, 2013
Length: 23 minutes (5,787 words)