Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Former New Yorker writer excavates history of 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, home for many years of his former magazine and "bastions of the old East Coast Wasp imperium" such as the Algonquin and Harvard Club
Desperate for cash in 1981, American Airlines sold first-class unlimited lifetime air tickets for $350,000. A great deal for the buyers, who have been racking up tens of millions of air-miles since. Now AA wants to weasel out
Remarkable collection of never-before-seen photographs of New York City from early 20th century. The city's Department of Records has released 850,000 images. Here are some of the most memorable
There really isn't much of a theme to tie these 39 photographs together, other than that they were all taken in the air, looking down. But, my, there are some beauties. Worth a few minutes of anyone's time
Risen left Nashville, the city of his childhood, because it was boring and uncool. A place "best left to right-wing nuts and burned-out country stars, orange cheese and white racism". But times have changed
Memoir of growing up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the "loose buckle on the Bible Belt". Local industries: Gambling and horse racing. "Wide-open town" where "a dishonest man could make an honest living" and mobsters could relax
There's more to Augusta, Georgia than the Masters golf tournament. It's also the hometown of the Godfather of Soul. Thompson goes to investigate Brown's side of town, and the legacy left by the singer
John Wallace was sitting quietly on a log in Yellowstone national park when he was attacked by a bear. His body was later found half-eaten. This is the story of how blame was assigned, and a killer grizzly caught
"It’s an economics lesson in the form of a parable, a traveller’s tale about the strange connection between master and servant in this de facto tourist colony. So let’s begin, in fairy-tale fashion, in a tower atop a castle"
New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward was slated to become "green space" post-Katrina. But some residents wanted to return. So the result, generously put, is laissez-faire. Population down by three-quarters; flora and fauna running riot
BP oil spill has been cleaned up and life has moved on, right? "There was no better way to assess the Gulf's health than by traveling around and sourcing one of my favorite meals – seafood gumbo – in the heart of bayou country"
The man who ran Alabama's pension fund had a problem – what to spend his money on, in order to diversify the fund's investments. He settled on golf courses, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. Now there are 26 of them around Alabama
