"Today, Jim Henson’s dark fairytale is seen as a classic of 80s high camp. But on release, it bombed."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
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• Longreads
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition:
• Showing our age
• Special delivery
• Unfriendly wagers
• A shore thing
• Sale therapy
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
Happy Fucking Birthday
"An exhausted America turns two hundred and fifty."
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The Whimsy and Heartbreak of America’s Garage Sales
"For $100, I bought bric-a-brac that explains a nation."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
The Brexit Catch
"Britain's fishermen became the folk heroes of Brexit. In Brixham, they were promised a brighter future. Did it ever arrive?"
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Weed Habit
"What would these weeds say of the city if they could talk?"
Longreads
• Dr. Dinesh Kumar Jangra
The People Who Know Too Much: A Reading List on Amateur Experts
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
What Remains
"We may know that nothing lasts forever, but this knowledge doesn’t alleviate the loneliness of grief."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
How to Hack a Superyacht
"GPS is critical to everything from shipping to warfare. Tricking it is ridiculously easy."
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Prison Experiment
"His life behind bars and his desperate campaign to get free."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Prediction Markets Let You Bet on Anything. I Bet Against My Own Husband.
"You can wager on war, elections, awards shows, reality TV, scientific progress, and—in the case of writer Carrie Sun—your own spouse. If you want to play, you have to wonder: Are you smarter than an inside trader?"
Longreads
• Longreads
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Cory Doctorow
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
The Troubling Disappearance of ‘El Gallito’
"A Rio Grande Valley murder case was botched and evidence lost by local police and by Texas Rangers. Will anyone ever be held responsible?"
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Name of the Father
"A wiseguy's son steps out of his father's shadow—and into the boxing ring. But the legacy of organized crime isn't so easy to leave behind."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
What If It All Came Out?
"We’re each attached to years of texts, searches, and photos, an archive of humiliation that could detonate at any time."
Longreads
• Longreads
The Cousin Returns
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
‘You Killed the Car’
"A Ferrari and a distinctive Highland Park home combined for an iconic scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
The Conscience of the City
"On the life of a garbageman."
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The Boeing 747 Begins Its Final Descent
"The jet was perhaps the pinnacle of American engineering excellence. Its retirement signals an end to an era of American culture—and ambition."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
It Was Britain’s Most Expensive House. Why is its Only Resident a Homeless Man Who Lives on the Porch?
"With many people desperate for secure housing, what does the abandonment of this palace tell us about the UK?"
Longreads
• Longreads
The Top Five Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Sloane Crosley; Zadie Smith; Mark Johnson and Saumya Khandelwal; Todd Kliman; and Sheila Liming.
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
Submitting to the Beast
"A father and son in New Orleans—feasting and flaneuring."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Thornton Wilder’s Last Play Vanished Into Thin Air. Or Did It?
"Decades after 'The Emporium' failed to open on Broadway in 1954, one man went on a quest to find it."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
‘It’s More Like a Playlist’: Lavinia Spalding on Editing the Best Women’s Travel Writing
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The Feeding
"My mom and I lived together for five years—the breast cancer years—until she died from the disease."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
Humans Killed Millions of Vultures. Now People Are Paying the Price.
"As vultures vanished, dogs multiplied, and rabies spread. Humans are living with the consequences."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
In the Reality Lab
"Your body's data was only valuable once."
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
Anguished Parents, Crying Doctors: Life Amid Utah’s Measles Outbreak
"The state’s outbreak means adapting to America’s new reality, in which vaccine-preventable diseases become common again."
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The End of Books
"What happened when a dumpster arrived behind my university's library."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
For People with Misophonia, Everyday Noises Can Be Agony
"The neurophysiological disorder is characterized by a severe aversion to sound—and the struggle to convince others of the severity of that aversion."