Miscellany

Last Mile

by Justin Beal,

The art of urine in the age of fulfillment

Corner Club Cathedral Cocoon

by Sasha Frere-Jones,

Audiophilia and its discontents

Sorcerer’s Apprentice

by Kent Russell,

Looking for demons in a disenchanted world

Down the Hatch

by David Hill,

On the road with the last American carnival sideshow

Bright Flight

by Vanessa Gregory,

The mysteries of firefly synchrony

Another Green World

by Jessica Camille Aguirre,

Can the planet’s ecosystems be replicated?

The Odor of Things

by Scott Sayare,

Solving the mysteries of scent

The Undiscovered Country

by Will Stephenson,

Can suicide be predicted?

The Crow Whisperer

by Lauren Markham,

What happens when we talk to animals?

The Grove

by Ben Lerner,

Then she suggested I make a list of all the things I’m grateful for. No entry is too small or mundane: access to clean water, fast internet, the weeping habit…

Reason Not the Need

by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,

Self-storage and the dream of infinite space

False Dawn

by Khadijah Queen,

A zuihitsu from the early months of the pandemic

Out of Time

by Sallie Tisdale,

The un-becoming of self

Notes to Self

by Ronald C. White,

Lincoln’s private thoughts on fate, failure, slavery, and belief

Bumpy Ride

by Dale Maharidge,

Why America’s roads are in tatters

Labor’s Schoolhouse

by Garret Keizer,

Lessons from the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913

Bee-Brained

by Vauhini Vara,

Inside the competitive Indian-American spelling community

Little Things

by Alice Gregory,

The outsized pleasures of the very small

The Notes of Patrick Modiano

by Peter De Jonge,

A young writer finds his voice on the radio

So Subtle a Catch

by Simon Parkin,

The illicit attraction of the lowly carp

Arrow Heads

by Reeves Wiedeman,

Living in archery

Ex Post

by Annie Dillard,

The life of a woman of letters

The Queen and I

by Tanya Gold,

The awful seduction of the British monarchy

Getting to the End

by J. C. Hallman,

Gambling and suicide in Atlantic City

Miracles and Wonders

by Sallie Tisdale,

One woman’s search for a perfect bra

The Man Stopped

by Vladimir Nabokov,

A story

Some Notes on Song

by John Berger,

The rhythms of listening

Stop Time

by Chloe Dewe Mathews, Geoff Dyer,

Remembering World War I’s executed deserters

Found Money