Without and Within, a Fin-de-Siècle Moment
The day after the election, the weather is perfect in New Orleans. The street cleaners have scrubbed Bourbon and the street is looking new and wet. Two older white women stop me to ask if there are any daiquiri places open. “There will be,” I tell them. “It’s only
‘Nobody Likes the Other Guy’: On the Road With Donald Trump’s Diehards
I sent my friend Robert a note that I might not be around when he gets to New Orleans. He’s moving from Kansas to start a new life, arriving November 2nd, the day before the presidential election. I told Robert I had been hearing from some friends that there
‘Things You Should Be Aware Of’: A Pandemic Prose Poem
Asymptomatic people are not contagious but pre-symptomatic people are. Most people are pre-symptomatic for one to two days after becoming infected. This, and the first day or two of symptoms, are when they are most contagious. It is 19 times more difficult to transmit the virus outdoors. There are no
Symptoms of Loneliness
I’m a corona believer. I began to panic about two weeks before everything shut down. By panic, I mean I stocked up on food and necessities in case I wasn’t able to go out. I started making all my own meals. Washed my hands constantly and used hand
The Man at the Arcade
It was March, 1987, and I was 15 years old. I was in the arcade on Wilson, in Uptown, Chicago, asking for quarters. I’d only recently been released from the mental hospital. I didn’t know where my parents lived. That morning, I’d made my way to the
How to Build a Bed
My bedroom is a strange shape. The apartment was added to the house sometime in the last century and the bedroom walls are made of barge board, from the house’s original construction over 200 years ago, when they took apart boats unable to return upstream before the advent of
The Demise of Gawker: An Interview with Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is the author of Trust Me, I’m Lying and numerous other books about marketing and culture. Holiday dropped out of college at 19, and by age 20 was chief marketing officer for American Apparel. His advisory firm, Brass Check, has counselled companies such as Google, TASER and
How An Anonymous Accusation Derailed My Life
In early October, 2017, following the emergence of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, a writer and activist living in Brooklyn named Moira Donegan created a Google Doc entitled “Shitty Media Men.” She sent it to female friends working in media and encouraged them to add to it and forward it on.
