America’s postal service is a rural lifeline—and it’s in jeopardy by Sarah Smarsh One of the most frustrating elements of the headlong scramble currently underway to demolish the U.S. Postal Service is that the effort is being led by the … Continue reading Outside Reading — Small Town, USA edition
Voter Fraud Is a Right-Wing Fiction by John Nichols It can’t be put much plainer — or more accurately — than it is in the headline to this article by John Nichols, published by The Nation. The cheap hand-wringing of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Postmarked Democracy edition
Buying Myself Back by Emily Ratajkowski Although I haven’t conducted a definitive analysis of the responsive media coverage to Emily Ratajkowski’s piece, written for New York magazine, I’ll wager that most of it focuses on her convincing recounting of sexual … Continue reading Outside Reading — Model Writing edition
How Conspiracy Theories Are Shaping the 2020 Election—and Shaking the Foundation of American Democracy by Charlotte Alter Admitting that there is no shortage of social-breakdown symptoms to fret about right now, I’m beginning to believe that the mainstreaming of nonsensical … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Brain Likes Crazy edition
Donald Trump’s USPS Attacks Threaten to Disrupt 2020 Election by Lily Herman Of all the colossal absurdities in a political era defined by them, perhaps none is quite so absurd than the fact that concerted effort is now required to … Continue reading Outside Reading — Unzipped edition
Rethinking the Film Canon by Rich Juzwiak Earlier this year, I was listening to the Little Gold Men podcast as they discussed the newly announced Academy Award nominations. As they mostly expressed relief about the small signs of voters looking beyond … Continue reading Outside Reading — Canon Fodder edition
“Can We Live?” by Tananarive Due Now that we’re almost halfway through this calendar year that epitomizes the curse of interesting times, it’s useful to remember that the the cataclysms of now have historic precursors that we can learn from. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Precedented edition
Pac-Man, The Japanese Game That Took Over The World, Turns 40 by Matt Alt On the occasion of the fortieth birthday of the yellow fellow originally known as Puck-Man, Matt Alt writes a brief history of the arcade game sensation. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Paku-Paku-Paku edition
The Bars of New Orleans Are Closed. They’re Still Getting the City Through This. by John Stanton We are lucky in our household. Transitioning to a work-from-home model was easy for us, and our employers are incredibly supportive of the … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Big Not-So-Easy edition
She Finds Meaning in the Dark by Manohla Dargis In this strange, unsettled time, there are many who are facing far greater hardships than me and most of my friends. For this I am a grateful. But everyone’s context is … Continue reading Outside Reading — See You on the Other Side edition
Coffee for Two 