This Bird’s Life
Leave the pardoning to the president. For one budding farmer, some truths are self-evident: that turkeys are stupid, dirty, and very mean.
Symbolism for Beginners
For tens of thousands of years, wild horses have inspired humans—to nurture, to create, to slaughter—culminating in the past century of America’s legal and psychological battles over the horses we can’t own.
Habitat for Humanity
Manhattan is rife with lumberjacks, Los Angeles is hot for Appalachia, and the latest trend in pornography is cabins. Yes, cabins. But when a woman leaves New York for a log structure of her own, a metamorphosis occurs.
Now That Books Mean Nothing
When you’ve long been identified as a “literary type,” how can it be that receiving books as get-well gifts leaves you feeling empty, angry, and determined to chug YouTube straight?
A Song for Aretha
For decades, America has taken Aretha Franklin for granted, heard and loved and danced to her music without a second thought. Now’s the time to think again.
Out of the Brainland and Into the Heartland
Thomas Jefferson’s heart’s work was to carve out a little Eden on a small mountaintop. Visiting Monticello again and again and again.
Window Shopping
Never mind all that gloomy talk of falling real-estate prices. For many renters, even a heavily mortgaged apartment is the stuff of daydreams.
Jack & Ginger
Moving back to your hometown offers opportunities to rekindle old friendships—and start new ones. An 80-proof love story.
Dog Crazy
Ogling New Yorkers cavorting with their dogs, a new resident longs for the creep-targeted, mother-terrifying, media-maligned best friend she left behind.