Recognizable Humans
From Guernica’s interview with Katherine Boo: Guernica: How did you balance telling individuals’ stories and using those stories to illuminate India’s economic inequality? Katherine Boo: …When I pick a...
View ArticleDistractions
But I also have a theory about all of the distractable types: there’s a very good chance you’re not writing because you’re not writing about what you actually want to write about. This may sound...
View ArticleI was born again, not raised on acid
I’m reading John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Pulphead and laughed out loud at this passage in the book’s first article, Upon This Rock. Sullivan has driven a 29-foot RV to a Christian rock festival: In the...
View ArticleWhat Happened to the Phoenix?
An article I wrote for the December issue of Boston Magazine, “What Happened to the Phoenix,” is up online. The title (which I chose) and the art (a burning Phoenix newsbox) are both somewhat...
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Who Has Better Arts Coverage?
On Twitter, Doug Most dissents from a claim in the final paragraph of my Phoenix story, in which I note that “the Phoenix‘s arts coverage remains better than the Globe‘s.” The Globe has won three...
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Where is Lindsey Vonn’s Bellybutton?
The February issue of Outside—on newsstands now!—has a picture of Lindsey Vonn on the cover, wearing…something. I’m not sure what. Plus, inside, a couple more pictures of Lindsey, and she’s skiing in...
View ArticleTwo Profiles
How and why Lindsey Vonn has become the greatest ski racer in American history: Vonn’s guiding principle as a racer, she told me last summer, is to ski like a man, which she meant in both the...
View ArticleToday at the Marathon
A lot of people have already written about the bombs at the Boston Marathon. What it was like to be at the finish line, and what the bombs maybe mean. So this will be short: I wasn’t very close to the...
View Article#WomenEdsWeLove
Paige Williams has been creating Xtranormal satire computer-voice videos for journalists. I’ve only watched a couple (there are ten, I think) but the ones I’ve watched are quite funny, in an...
View ArticleWhat is it with ICE?
Last night I re-read William Finnegan’s deportation story in the April 29 issue of the New Yorker. It’s is among the best magazine stories I’ve ever read (and, unfortunately, it’s still gated.)...
View ArticleIn Defense of Good-Enough Pitches
In an interview with Mediabistro, Pacific Standard editor Maria Streshinsky tells people interested in writing for her that “Your [pitch] lede should be as good as your story lede.” I’m working on a...
View Article“The Work Is the Best Part”
The Billfold talks to Natasha Vargas-Cooper. Some people are better off without jobs: You’re totally freelance now, is that right? I’ve never been offered or gone out for a staff job.There’s a lot of...
View ArticleRecognizable Humans
From Guernica’s interview with Katherine Boo: Guernica: How did you balance telling individuals’ stories and using those stories to illuminate India’s economic inequality? Katherine Boo: …When I pick a...
View ArticleMalcolm Gladwell on Alberto Salazar and Pain
When I was 13, in 8th grade, I ran myself to the point of exhaustion for the first time. I was out of shape after a summer of hanging out, but I faced my main rival and I dearly wanted to win on my...
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