An entomologist reflects on fly-hunting, an outhouse of distinguished provenance, and the narcissism of collectors.
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The Linguistic Morphology of Reaction GIFs
From visual emojis depicting simple emotional states, it’s a short step to the more dynamic emotion or reaction gifs, used by certain internet subcultures to respond or react in playful ways to an online discussion. These are gif images, often originating from internet memes, that depict elements of body language that can be too complex for an emoticon to describe. Essentially, it’s an innovative way for speakers to convey a sense of gesture on the internet.
‘The Truth of Life’: Paula Fox on the Re- (Re-) Release of Her 1970 Novel
Sari Botton talks to Paula Fox about Fox’s 1970 novel “Desperate Characters.”
The Art of Escape
What do we gain from giving inmates access to video games?
The Biblical Rheology of Deep-Dish Pizza
A visit to Illinois—home to snow, slaughterhouse romance, and a fraught geology masquerading as pizza—courtesy of Matthew Gavin Frank’s brilliant new book.
How Many Gigs Does It Take to Make It in NYC?
The gig economy (“a phrase which encompasses both the related collaborative economy and sharing economy”) is inescapable.
The Murder that Has Obsessed Italy
In Italy, the 2011 murder of Yara Gambirasio has sent shockwaves through entire communities, prompting the police to launch the most complex investigation in the country’s history — an investigation that would end up exposing family secrets that had been buried for decades.
Trauma and Joy: Four Stories About Adoption
The stories of adoptees are not open-and-shut case files—they are complex and messy. In these particular stories, you’ll meet a young woman who fought for her three brothers, a group of stridently anti-adoption adoptees, an eager couple waiting by the phone, and another couple coping with the myth of post-racism.
A Loaded Gun: The Real Emily Dickinson
She was less like a recluse, more like a bomb going off.
