December 2013 Archives

Closing the Door

The Year That Was and Wasn’t

We gathered writers and thinkers to consider everything that happened over the past 12 months and asked them: What were the most important events of 2013—and what were the least?

Navel Grazing

Editors’ Favorites From 2013

The staff choose their most-liked pieces published in 2013: a trip to Patsy Cline’s divided hometown, the complete biography of North West, a cold case of hit-and-run, and no shortage of great quotes about dead bodies.

Guides

2013 Holiday Survival Guide for Slackers

Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Which is just as well, because she wouldn’t have liked the gift you bought for her at the last minute. Gift ideas for the ungifted.

Gallery

Human Interest Story

Luminous portraits taken by a pediatrician-photographer, of people considered to be outside beauty’s dominant ideal.

Albums of the Year

The Top Albums of 2013

A full calendar year of only listening to music that was released in 2013 comes down to this: The Morning News Editor’s Choice Awards for the 19 best albums of the year.

Spoofs & Satire

Greetings From Sloane-10b

As New York real estate prices skyrocket, it’s time to head where no gentrifier has gone before.

The Nostalgia Cycle

Burying the Present

Thirty years ago, two friends created a vision of the future—a space opera put to tape—and buried it in a time capsule. Listening again today, it turns out we remember the past as it never quite was.

Gallery

Silent Lights

Human beings captured behind closed doors, in their most animal state. Some images may be considered NSFW.

The ToB X Long List

Unfortunately it’s still too early for us to release the 16-or-so finalists for the 10th edition of The Morning News Tournament of Books, arriving in March 2014. But we...

Letters From India

Having to Do With the Price of Onions

A sharp rise recently in the price of onions in India is about a lot more than just sandwiches. When onions are up, even governments are at risk.

Personal Essays

Born, Still

A newborn wavers between life and something else. For the father, a walk in the woods elucidates the struggle between nature and nurture.

Personal Histories

A Lifetime’s One Regret

Does hindsight improve with age? People, ages five to 60, name their life’s biggest mistake and what they learned.

Gallery

People of the Sun

Photographed asleep, sunbathers on the beach show how endearing—and universally human—we all can be when we just lie down and let loose.

Guides

The 2013 Good Gift Games

During holiday family get-togethers, don’t risk bringing up a topic everyone’s hoping to avoid. Instead, bring a board game and circumvent all conversation. Here are 10 of the best from 2013.

New York, New York

Wrestling With Andy Kaufman

The hoax at the Andy Kaufman Award show led to speculation the notorious comic faked his death—a joke that wouldn’t have been out of character. When a fresh-faced Glamour editor mingled with him the year before he died, Andy talked about disappearing.

The Expense Report

A Moving Experience

Travel is mostly boredom—and if you’re not bored, you’re pretty sure that everyone else is having more fun. Selected for The Best American Travel Writing 2014, the woes of professional travel writers.

Gallery

The Hunter in His Blind

A project to document Wisconsin’s broad variety of deer stands takes on new meaning after a round of chemotherapy.