“They’re a little eccentric” is a phrase I suspect most of us have heard used to describe a certain kind of memorable person. For me, it evokes my childhood dentist — an elderly man who favored colorful bow ties and humming loudly as he worked, and who once wagged his finger in my face and […]
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Everyone Knew About the A-Team
“How did the Alexander brothers become real-estate elites while allegedly raping or assaulting more than a dozen women?”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Highlighting stories from Alex Morris, Gordy Megroz, Patricia Marx, Leigh Claire La Berge, and Anne Casselman.
The Very Public Library, Food as Fuel, and Our Top 5
“It’s our least popular and most enforced rule: we don’t allow people to sleep in the library. We know you’re tired, we know it’s warm, we know it feels safe. But someone who is dying also looks like someone who is sleeping, and we’ve all seen our share of overdoses. Also, if one person is […]
The Race That Turned to Ruin
“Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive.”
‘He Is the Prince, but I Am the King’
Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe’s fraud of the century.
‘A Felony Just to Own’: The Sleazy Story Behind Penthouse’s Most Controversial Issue
“Peter Bloch, Penthouse‘s then-executive editor: “It was the best-selling issue of Penthouse of all time. Hands down. A complete sellout in, like, two days. You couldn’t get a copy. So there were guys paying—and this is something I saw with my own eyes—a dollar for a peek. A peek!””
Analyzing the ‘Bimbo’: A Reading List on Hollywood Blondes
The source of glamour, sex, and transgression? Or a carefully crafted persona? A closer look at the Hollywood blonde.
How Vladimir Putin Helped ‘Nazify’ Modern Germany
Rainer Sonntag was a far-right vigilante. He was also a Communist spy.
Searching for the Mountaintop in Upstate New York
A family confronts its racial past along the Appalachian Trail.


