Searching for Meg White by Melissa Giannini

Melissa Giannini writes about her recent attempts to secure an interview with drummer Meg White, a journalistic task that’s always been difficult but has been essentially impossible in the decade-plus since the White Stripes formally disbanded. As must occur, the article quickly turns into a consideration of White’s legacy as a musician, which is forever compromised by the dude rock fans who’ve been reflexively, chauvinistically critical of her primally potent drumming from the jump. Giannini makes a strong case for White’s talent and for the notion that the White Stripes might have endured if not for the loud, frothing fury of stupid boys who couldn’t stomach a woman being treated with respect. This piece is published by Elle.

The Golden Age of Spite Fences by Adam Bunch

Writing for his own newsletter, The Toronto History Weekly, Adam Bunch unearths stories of spite fences, structures that proliferated in the first half of the twentieth century. As the name implies, these overly high fences were typically erected on the property lines between feuding neighbors. The monuments to malice happened all over the place (the picture above is a imposing structure in Cincinnati, in 1917), but in entertaining fashion Bunch does make it seem as though the denizens of Toronto were especially committed to the practice.