"There is really no such thing as a big-city newspaper columnist anymore, but Breslin was big—he would literally call reporters on the phone to tell them, 'I’m big.'"
"Thirty years after the era-defining 'Got Milk?' campaign—itself a project of the California Milk Processor Board—the U.S. dairy industry’s PR machine appears to be getting a second wind."
"At best, it’s a veiled attempt to reinforce regressive views about the role of women, and in doing so, walk back decades of feminist progress. Some argue that the tradwife “movement” is also intrinsically rooted in white supremacy. And yet I cannot stop watching." —Amy McCarthy for Eater
"They would soon learn that the news was far worse. Elliot had perpetrated a horrific massacre, one that still stands apart in America’s epidemic of mass shootings." —Mark Follman for @motherjonesmag
"Most of the belongings, such as clothing, makeup and blankets, could be replaced in time. But she panicked when she realized that her dentures, acquired after months of dental appointments, were also gone."
"It’s an album of immense ambition and immense vision, and the artist with his name on the jacket is operating from a place that is not one of expertise, but it’s also not amateurish. It exists in this middle space, one defined by eagerness and seeking."
"For Sidney’s parents, the loss is all-consuming. They’ve spent more than three months piecing together the final minutes of her life." —Lori Culbert for The Vancouver Sun
"In our generation, there are so many people who have gone through trauma, especially at the hands of our postwar parents and a bigoted society. Each Rainbow Elder has their own story, but we all share a similar vulnerability." —Abby Tickel for Maclean's
"What a sweet romance: an esteemed Hopkins scientist, whose research took him away from home, writing love letters back to his wife in Baltimore. Or so it seemed."
"There has always been a certain feeling of euphoria that comes to Tony Pabón as he looks out at the dance floor from his D.J. table at Salsannati Dance Company." —Charley Locke for New York Times Magazine
"It was my first in-person chess competition, and I was full of optimism. I faced a severe-looking child who wore a food-stained sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoon penguin." @robaeprice for Business Insider
"He showed me how to strum and set me free to play. Three strings—past, present, and future—unified in one connective strum. I inhaled deeply to keep from crying. Yes, this is beautiful."
"MDMA users, many of whom partied weekly among thousands of others and had never witnessed the negative consequences splashed across the media, inhabited an entirely different world."
"I take out $50,000 in student loans every single year, and it sucks. I have to work 20 hours a week to pay off the interest. I hate sitting here knowing I’m working my ass off only so my money can go to supporting genocide."
In 2022, there were just 42,000 nuns in America and the majority were elderly. For The Baffler, Lauren Fadiman spent some time with Benedictine sisters and explored the history and decline of religious life. "There was a time when the convent was the closest a woman could get to both the Lord and women’s lib," she writes. "The vow of chastity lifted the burdens of early marriage, bad sex, and potentially lethal childbirth; the habit released women from the obligations of beauty; and the requisite knowledge of Latin and a wide range of religious texts required that nuns be well-educated."
"At the Chelsea production offices, an elevator door opened and there was Bing, magisterial in every respect: a lean, muscular hundred and forty-five pounds and, by the prop department’s tape measure, forty-two inches tall from his forepaws to the top of his skull." —Nick Paumgarten for The New Yorker
"What has unfolded this year around Snows Court is an old-fashioned neighborhood melodrama — 'Kittygate,' if you must — complete with wounded feelings, rampant gossip, sidewalk spies, lawsuit threats and tricky questions . . ." —Andrea Sachs for The Washington Post.
Looking for new writers to work with on @longreads stories. I prefer to read drafts of personal essays/reported essays but I also consider reported essay pitches, too. Rates start at $500. Read our submission guidelines: https://longreads.com/submissions/
∙ Warrior-culture capitalism (The Baffler)
∙ The joy of scientific discovery (Nautilus)
∙ Booking a table—for a price (The New Yorker)
∙ Houses in Sicily for one euro (AFAR)
∙ An oral history of Go, 25 years later (GQ)
"The officers accused of abusing teenagers spanned the ranks, from patrolmen to police chiefs. Some were department veterans cited in news articles for their community work."