“What in fiction is enjoyable and beautiful is often terrifying in real life.”
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Inside California’s Brutal Underground Market for Puppies: Neglected Dogs, Deceived Owners, Big Profits
“Buyers are often fooled into thinking they’re supporting reputable, local breeders, but are instead fueling a trade in which some puppies are born and raised in horrific conditions.”
That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.
“Endless wait times and excessive procedural fuss—it’s all part of a tactic called ‘sludge.'”
40 Years Later: Sade, “Promise”
“Promise” isn’t necessarily about love, or even about surrender, but about giving your heart over, repeatedly, and enduring the failures that come with the exchange.
How the Poet Christian Wiman Keeps His Faith
“Pushpin-specific lists fill his essays; single, stirring images lift from lines of his poems like the pages of a pop-up book.”
There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters
“Above all else, Morrison’s rejection letters focus on craft—that is, on the experience of reading a work under review.”
The Italian Fruit Detective Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings for Disappeared Produce
“Renaissance paintings, medieval archives, cloistered orchards—one Italian scientist is uncovering secrets that could combat a growing agricultural crisis.”
For the Love of Wordle: A Reading List on Puzzles and Games
Seven longreads on the communal pastime of puzzles, games, and crosswords.
The Strange Persistence of First Languages
“Spurred by my father’s death, I returned to the Czech Republic hoping to reconnect to him. In doing so, I also reconnected with my native tongue, and with parts of my identity that I had long ignored.”
