In this edition: Bear bones, outstanding Outkast, Brightline’s brutality, lasting lunches, ruin ruminations, and more.
Bitter Southerner
Posted inEditor's Pick
All Praise to the Lunch Ladies
“Blessed are the women who watch over America’s children. “
Posted inEditor's Pick
Odd Birds
“In an era where gender identity and sexual orientation can get you a beating by bullies or shot dead in a nightclub, writer Shane Mitchell celebrates otherness — and a great-aunt who lived her life with courage and gusto.”
Posted inTop 5
Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we’re sharing stories from Nick Bowlin, Rachel Priest and Emily Strasser, Rachel Yoder, Jake Skeets, and Willa Paskin.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Emily Strasser Wrestles with a Family Secret
“Secrets are passed down. And so if we don’t figure shit out, for lack of a better term, then we perpetuate those same harms on the next generation.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Obituary for a Quiet Life
“A man passes away without a word in the mountains of North Carolina, and his grandson sets out to write about the importance of a seemingly unimportant life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Can Feel God’s Presence in This Portable Toilet
“Harrison Scott Key invites us all to experience the joy, chaos — and, at times, horror — of St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Feel Most Southern in the Hip-Hop of My Adolescence
“Joy Priest creates a Southern rap soundtrack of the cars, songs, and forces that sculpted her sense of freedom and confinement coming of age in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early 2000s.”
Posted inFood, History, Quotes
Goodness, How Delicious, Eating Goober Peas
Is there anything peanuts aren’t good for?
Posted inEssays & Criticism, History, Quotes
A Mother’s Less-Than-True Story of Being a Child Bride
Getting married in her swimsuit at the age of 12 was something Danny Wallace’s mother would tell anyone she met. It also wasn’t true.