Can You Say … “Hero”?

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a man took off his jacket and put on a sweater. Then he took off his shoes and put on a pair of sneakers. His name was Fred Rogers. He was starting a television program, aimed at children, called Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He had been on television before, but only as the voices and movements of puppets, on a program called The Children’s Corner. Now he was stepping in front of the camera as Mister Rogers, and he wanted to do things right, and whatever he did right, he wanted to repeat.

Author: Tom Junod
Source: Esquire
Published: Nov 1, 1998
Length: 32 minutes (8,039 words)

Good Days at Ground Zero

Given all the political noise, you might not realize that the towers of the new World Trade Center are swiftly reaching the sky, rising by a floor a week. Soon, the noise will be forgotten. It’s the towers we’ll remember. #Sept11

Author: Scott Raab
Source: Esquire
Published: Oct 1, 2010
Length: 21 minutes (5,318 words)

The Silent Season of a Hero

“I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing,” the old man said. “They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand.” –Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Author: Gay Talese
Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 1, 1966
Length: 33 minutes (8,370 words)

Eleven Lives

The oil will have stopped gushing into the Gulf. The shoreline and the estuaries and the beaches will have been scrubbed clean by man and nature. BP and Transocean will have resumed business as usual. But the original wound will never heal. This is the story of what’s been lost.

Author: Tom Junod
Source: Esquire
Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 37 minutes (9,275 words)

Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican

In the twelve years since he resigned in defeat and disgrace, he has been carefully plotting his return to power. As 2012 approaches, he has raised as much money as all of his potential rivals combined and sits atop the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. But just who is Newton Leroy Gingrich, really? An epic and bizarre story of American power in an unsettled age.

Source: Esquire
Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 34 minutes (8,547 words)

The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy

Just over ten years later and with just one fewer soul on board, the vanishing of a French jumbo jet brings back memories of the SwissAir Flight 111 crash. Here, a heartbreaking account that continues to instruct today.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 1, 2000
Length: 32 minutes (8,066 words)

Invasion

You think it’d be impossible to share your house with your wife, your daughter, and fifty million or so Argentine ants. And you would be correct.

Author: Tom Junod
Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 1, 2010
Length: 17 minutes (4,385 words)

The Man Who Would Fall to Earth

From 120,000 feet, Felix Baumgartner will step from a sealed capsule and drop 23 miles. In 35 seconds, he will become the first human to free-fall through the sound barrier. What happens after that, nobody knows…

Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 1, 2010
Length: 27 minutes (6,879 words)

TV’s Crowning Moment of Awesome

In thirty-eight years, The Price is Right never had a contestant guess the exact value of prizes in the Showcase showdown. Until Terry Kniess outsmarted everyone — and changed everything.

Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 1, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,085 words)

Biography of Usain Bolt, Mutant

In just two years, he has demolished the 100-meter dash world records with times that are superhuman — literally thirty years ahead of what they historically should be. So what if the greatest athlete alive decided to actually get serious?

Source: Esquire
Published: Apr 1, 2010
Length: 36 minutes (9,076 words)