“On the last day of my old job, I stumbled out the door, holding aloft that iconic emblem of termination: The Box. Though from the outside it might look wholly indistinct, we who have felt its symbolic weight know this is no ordinary box; this is a box that can make grown men cry.”
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Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
David Carr: 1956-2015
David Carr, the acclaimed journalist, media columnist for The New York Times, and author of the bestselling Night of the Gun, died February 2015 in New York at the age of 58. Here is a brief reading list of stories by and about Carr, his life and work. It doesn’t even begin to cover it. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How the Hand Painted Rock ‘n’ Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip Came to Be
Collectors Weekly: Who started the music industry’s billboard trend?
Landau: As far as I can tell, it was the Doors in 1967 for their debut album. I talked with Jac Holzman—the head of Elektra Records who signed the Doors—while writing my book. In 1967, he had just come out here from the East Coast and opened an office on La Cienega Boulevard, not far from Sunset Boulevard, and it occurred to him that billboards were being used for everything except promoting records and music. A lot of radio stations where popular disc jockeys worked were farther east on Sunset, and he knew they drove on the Strip, and that the entertainment industry in general was based there.
Posted inNonfiction
Buried Alive in a Grain Silo
Grain-bin accidents have become a consequence of our massive corn consumption.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Real Cliff Huxtable
“For decades, Bill Cosby was America’s ideal dad. His real life was more complicated.” A critical look at the new Mark Whitaker biography, Cosby: His Life and Times, and what it leaves out.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The King’s Last Game
Elvis Presley and I had at least one thing in common: A love of racquetball.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘If Both of You Don’t Grow Up, One of You Is Going to Die’
It never fully leaves. Years later, you find yourself at a New Year’s party and idly ask a friend a question about dads, and after 10 minutes’ conversation you realize both of you are on the verge either of insensate bawling, or else ready to throw a chair through a window. Or you find yourself […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Helping Dad Die: A Daughter’s Story
In the U.K., Britons with terminal illnesses or incurable diseases have nowhere to go if they want help to die. A daughter’s personal story about finding a way to ease her father’s suffering and the right-to-die debate: Had my father lived in, say, Utrecht rather than the West Country, he could simply have turned to […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
The Box and the Basement
“On the last day of my old job, I stumbled out the door, holding aloft that iconic emblem of termination: The Box. Though from the outside it might look wholly indistinct, we who have felt its symbolic weight know this is no ordinary box; this is a box that can make grown men cry.”
