The Year That Was and Wasn’t
Yes, 2017 went off the rails. But what pushed it? We asked 29 of our favorite journalists, writers, and thinkers: What were the most important events of the past 12 months, and what were the least?
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A collection of 98 issues
The Year That Was and Wasn’t
The past year has been bad—but what made it bad, more or less? To find out, we asked a group of writers and thinkers: What were the most important events of 2016, and what were the least?
The Year That Was and Wasn’t
We asked writers and thinkers to tell us: What were the most important events of 2015—and what were the least?
Paris, Exposed
The layout of the French capital is famous for its density and opaqueness. Under attack, suddenly transparency is the norm.
The Messenger
From “Truth Trucks” to viral videos, Operation Rescue head Troy Newman’s word is his sword.
The Last Dying Cat
When the family pet nears the end, of course there is sadness. But there is also every other emotion.
Life Before Death
If you had to choose between the life of a loved one or the survival of a dozen other people, would you be capable of a rational decision?
Press Rewind
What one journalist learned by vicariously sitting in on David Carr’s master class—with only his teacher’s reputation, extant syllabus, and students’ recollections to guide the way.
Mrs. Bundy
For the mother of a serial killer, a chance to connect with victims on live TV offers a shot at redemption.
City to Rapper: Drop Dead
This summer’s ongoing war between Chief Keef and Rahm Emanuel is as much about urban history as holograms.
The Slaughter
To produce food in the form of meat, an animal will be killed. Obvious but significant: You will realize you are about to end a life.
My Letter From Oliver Sacks
Migraines, 3D magic, and an unlikely correspondence from one “incredibly stereoscopic person” to another.
Fight or Flight
A near-death experience makes this week’s International Asteroid Day a little more tricky to celebrate.
The Death of Clemency
Clemency is supposed to be a “fail-safe” in our judicial system. Thanks to a handful of powerful, well-paid political appointees, that notion is proving lethally incorrect.
Death Means No Reversible Error
Whenever lethal injection drugs are unavailable, Utah will allow death-row prisoners to choose death by firing squad, citing it as the most “humane” option.
My Time of Not Dying
Call it Kreider’s Law: You can’t be grateful to be alive your entire life. Especially when there's an arms race going on inside your head.
Kafka’s Kickstarter
The latest works from the author will be given with pleasure, and received with thanks, but we need your support.
The Gambler
In which the novelist and magician Tim O’Brien makes the author disappear, and a family funeral puts a father’s sleight of hand on full display.
The Kings of Simcoe County
At an Elvis festival in rural Canada, scores of tribute artists (not "impersonators") pay homage to the King. When searching for the meaning of it all, try not to overthink it.
Admirable Restraint
Understatement can help us cope with disaster. But in the case of Paul McCartney, a little doesn’t always go a long way.
Of Fish and Farmers
Consider the Delta smelt: an old fish in California, endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, now caught between its home and thousands of drought-stricken acres.
The Long Thanatopsis
Over the next few decades, baby boomers will reinvent how America dies. That gives Generation X one last thing to roll its eyes about, as it follows a step behind.
Alternate Forms for Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
The Bard’s most famous sonnet very nearly wasn’t a Shakespearean sonnet. Rejected pairings of content and form, from rondelet to an acrostic hiding his name.
Back to Skol
NFL star Randy Moss is now a high school coach. A Vikings fan explains how watching one childhood hero move on with his life helps him say goodbye to another.
The Combination Lock Test
A man dies, leaving behind, among other things, a combination lock. Opening it may just prove the existence of the afterlife.
The Art of Swimming
Three near-drownings elucidate the wisdom of a 17th-century guide to swimming safety and technique.
Junglecare
In search of a remedy for MS, a journey out of the gridlock of America’s health system and into the jungles of Belize, where medicine men promise cures for everything that ails you.
The Influencing Machine
When a genetic disease looms, we’re more like our parents than we’d like to believe—and when we become parents, that fear only grows.
A Country’s Width
Years go by easier when there are 2,000 miles separating a father and son. Then an American flag turns up in your lap.
The Cello Courier
After a death in the family, a precious musical instrument must be transported a thousand-plus miles. Should it break, a lot more is at stake than just music.
Demolish Me
The present-day lust for ruins is nothing new. In fact, it’s nearly as old as any ruins themselves. From a flattened Louvre to Percy Bysshe Shelley, a journey to the dawn of ruin porn.
The Unofficial Roger Ebert Reader on Addiction
When Roger Ebert died, America was deprived of one of its finest critics. We also lost one of our best writers on addiction.
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?
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.
The Cause of All the Commotion
This Saturday, the 2013 hurricane season will end—and with it, possibly, New York City’s final hurricane-less year.
All the President’s Killers
Fifty years after Dallas, an illustrated guide to every person, plot, and nefarious organization ever accused of killing JFK.
Let Football Live
Cracks are appearing in football’s helmet—injuries to athletes, injuries to the game. For one former high school and college player, the damage has gone too far.
Kitty Pride
A visit with the prima donnas of the 32nd Annual Westchester County Cat Show helps a longtime owner appreciate her unruly childhood best friend, now departed.
From Beyond the Grave
Convinced his wife was buried by mistake, a widower insists on unearthing her body. What happens when they open the coffin? As is our Halloween ritual, TMN writers share their own endings to the story.
A Sudden and Awful Manner
In early New England, anyone who stood near an open door or window faced mortal danger. A conversation with a woman who hunts for gravestones with epitaphs describing death by lightning strike.
Now Boarding
More and more, we communicate today in short bursts of text. Letters may be dead, but we still write to each other constantly. A man considers what could be his last words to his children from a departing airplane.
The Works and Days of Elena Shvarts
A literary gumshoe visits St. Petersburg to track down the so-called “ninja of Russian verse,” Elena Shvarts, who died in 2010 leaving almost nothing behind.
Chiraq, Drillinois
Originating on the South Side, drill music has attracted major labels to Chicago in search of young rappers—as gang violence turns the city into the murder capital. Each has everything to do with the other.
Mother, May I
Don’t let the flying matzoh balls confuse you. A visit from a dead parent is serious business—a second chance for love, and for forgiveness.
To Kill and To Eat
Farming chickens takes care and concentration, and a deal with the birds: We give you a life of safety and comfort, and you die for our food. Until a murdering predator arrives and gives lie to the vow.
The Case of the Hungry Stranger
A man is always more complicated than his paper trail—especially when he’s your father, who walked out one day.
The Gales of November
On Nov. 28, 1966, the SS Daniel J. Morrell capsized during a storm, taking 28 of its 29 crewmen to the bottom of Lake Huron. The sole survivor of a Great Lakes shipwreck tells his tale.
I Shall Be Heard
Andy Kaufman performed for more than just laughs—in fact, his goal often seemed to be something entirely different. A budding comic chases Andy’s ineffable comedy.
Eat, Pray, Murder
Good book clubs rely on commitment, Sauvignon Blanc, and the pruning of members with annoying habits. Unfortunately, sometimes those members are homicidal maniacs.
I Wish That We Could Both Be There
In 1974, a car hits a seven-year-old boy in central New Jersey. The boy dies. From 2013, a former friend starts to probe the causes, effects, statistics, and consequences.
Playing Johnny Ace
A young crooner’s untimely, macabre death left questions for those who would follow—musicians and fans alike. Was it suicide? Was it a hit? A listener's query into one star's place in the history of early rock and roll.
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 2012—and what were the least?
Stop, Don’t Shoot
You witness an incident occur directly in front of you. You see every detail. There's time to help—but should you get involved? A handy guide for photographers.
The Perfect Forecast
Predicting the weather is an incredibly complicated task. Stopping it altogether is even more difficult—but that doesn't mean scientists aren't trying. Obsession, cloud seeding, and very powerful storms.
North Korea Won't Be Liberated in a Day
North Korea's prison camps are roundly condemned as heinous, but remain untouched. When an idealistic young reporter takes on a mission to help shut them down—bearing Hemingway and Vollmann in mind—he winds up on the doorstep of the Embassy of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.
The Missing Bride
A bride disappears on her wedding day, never to be seen again—or will she? Continuing a grand TMN Halloween tradition, our writers and editors craft new endings to a familiar tale.
Under the Bridge Downtown
When you’re a competition-level grocery-store bagger, it’s easy to overlook the messy lives of your co-workers. But when one of them goes missing, and you start to grow up, the picture changes.
Rhythm in Disguise
Musical therapists can improve patients’ cognitive functioning and motor skills. But sometimes the battle is to keep a mind intact. Avant-garde composition and EKG techno in a London care center.
Tiny Castles of Doom
Read between the lines of a to-do list, and you'll find an artfully constructed maze of excuses. A challenge to complete five things before the end of summer, or before you die—whichever comes first.
Songs in the Key of Death
America's funeral parlors rely on one man to provide the theme music for your grandmother’s memorial service, the pop radio for your cousin’s wake. Welcome to “semi-spiritual” ambient music and the stuff of contemporary mourning.
Dark Material
There is a brand of humor with an inherent meaning so dark that, even though we may wish we hadn’t laughed, we’re programmed to think it’s funny. An explanation of a joke about a pedophile.
H.P. Lovecraft, Author, Is Dead
Today marks the 75th anniversary of H.P. Lovecraft's death. From Stephen King's It to “The Call of Cthulhu,” a survey of the 20th century's greatest horror writer's afterlife of influence.
Apocalypse How
Big-budget films tell us earthquakes are bad, volcanic eruptions can be catastrophic, and meteorite strikes—barring the presence of Bruce Willis—may kill us all. Seeking expert advice on how scared we should be.
The Devil’s Trumpet
History is an imperfect science—the truth often weaves within nuance and mystery. For those playing the role of historian, the trick is knowing what you’re looking for.
Don’t Leave Me
World War II had veteran parades. Vietnam War vets were often ignored, if not shunned. For the current generation of war-weary Americans, solace comes on YouTube.
The Year That Wasn't
As much as 2011 was filled with noteworthy events, it was also littered with meaninglessly overhyped blips that, try as we might, we shouldn't forget. We asked our group of writers and thinkers: What was the least important event of 2011?
The Year That Was
We gathered writers and thinkers around the world and asked them to sift through the past year of revolutions, deaths, discoveries, and breakthroughs to answer: What was the most important event of 2011?
The Monkey's Paw
A foreign talisman holds great power, but those who use it do so at their peril. In the grand TMN tradition of celebrating Halloween, our editors and writers create new endings to a well-known scary story.
The Man Behind the Window
Allan Seager was a student at Oxford when he contracted tuberculosis. What happened next made him one of America's greatest writers—declared the heir to Anderson and Hemingway—ever to be forgotten. Yet one of Seager's short stories endures in ways that none of Hemingway's can match.
Erogenous Gaps
Humor happens when an audience fills in the gaps--at its best, those gaps are packed layers deep with meaning. An explanation of an 18-word Mitch Hedberg joke.
Everyone Must Go
You've seen the billboards and the banner ads: Judgment Day is coming on May 21. But just because you're saved doesn't mean you're home-free. Brimstone Barney's Apocalypse Surplus has just the deal for you.
Paul Is Death
While the most popular Beatles rumor turned out to be false, making the case for an even more dramatic revelation.
Just Like Heaven
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we answer that eternal question: What happens after we die?
Pushing Your Buttons
Introducing iBox 2G, the fastest, most powerful way to satisfy your greed and simultaneously kill a complete stranger.
Murderer, Thief, Whoremonger, Cheat
This summer marks the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's joyride to Albany--a celebration steeped in blood and greed.
An Arm and a Leg to Be Divided
Four hundred years ago, Henry Hudson took a pleasure cruise up to Albany--and so began a bloody, murderous chapter of American history.
Reading With Scissors
If not for a tragic car accident in 2001, W.G. Sebald would be celebrating his senior citizenship next week. Recalling an obsessive introduction to the author's unclassifiable genre.
Treacherie and the Chiefe Men of the Countrey
To celebrate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's cruise to Albany, a new series about the Dutch colonies' origins in America--no publicity cover-ups allowed.
I Will Sing When You’re All Dead
Professional opera singer, mountain climber, race car driver, and Vladimir Nabokov’s best translator and collaborator, Dmitri Nabokov has led an impassioned life.
How to Embalm a Body
Those who can't do, learn. In this installment of our series in which the clueless apprentice with the experts, we visited a funeral home in New Jersey to learn, hands-on, how to prepare someone for an eternal rest.
Giant in the House
Parents can seem larger in life to their children, but some truly are giants. Recounting the death of her stepfather, for whom nothing was easier by being freakishly big.
What Is It, Boy?
When a beloved companion dies, existential crises loom. Tracing the history of Neptune, a mixed Australian Shepherd, all the way back to the dawn of mammals.
Memorare
While AIDS is still a major killer around the world, it has become a manageable condition for most HIV-positive Americans. Bearing witness to a time when the mortal threat was closer to home.
Murder and the Masseuse
Many of us imagine killing our bosses; some people actually take it a little further. Meet a woman who got into the massage business to avoid a homicide rap.
Sacrifice
From choosing a mousetrap to moving across the country, parenting requires tough decisions.
Blacksburg and Biography
It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident traces his connections to the tragedy.
My Apartment
Not enough square footage and too little privacy are the trademarks of New York dwelling. Learning new ways to be neighborly as the woman across the hall moans on her deathbed.
The Five Stages of Black Friday
The road from denial to Christmas is an arduous one, and begins the day after Thanksgiving. Abandon all hope, and brave the throngs.
All Hallows
Ghost masks, trampy nurses, and razor-stuffed apples—yes. But Halloween’s true character, as a day to remember the dead, can still sneak up on you.
In the Realm of the Oak Queen
A generation ago, the death of a pet prompted heartbreak, but the burial may have been a simple backyard affair. Pet funerals these days are going upscale, and one New York pet crematorium sets a shining example.
The Obit Laureate
The first installment of our occasional series in which we transform recent Times obituaries--a gong striker, a burger matriarch, a bagpipe virtuoso--into light verse.
Way to Go
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we have your answer for the next time somebody asks you how, when your number is finally up, you want to go.
A Path of Destruction
Since 1980, the Shining Path guerrillas in Peru have been responsible for over 30,000 deaths. So why, now that the organization is effectively dismantled, are the seeds for revolution still being planted?
Sharing Smokes With the Holy Spirit
Bumping into an acquaintance can change your day in profound ways. This is especially true when your friend has recently died, ascended to heaven, and been reborn as a vagrant.
In The Rear With Broken Gear
We depend on our troops to protect our shores—shouldn’t our troops be able to depend on their weapons? A look at 11 deaths attributed to bad equipment.
How to Survive a Deathbed
It’s not SARS, and you’re sure it’s something worse. Even though they say it’s just a cold, you’ve already resigned yourself to death’s icy grip. Ways to make the wait a little more worthwhile.
The Mormons: Our Secret Weapon in the War on Terror
Is war the only option? Surely, there’s something else we can do? Something, perhaps, involving ghosts and baptism? A proposition you might not slam your door on.
Mix Tape for Dead Girl
Writing a eulogy once involved hours of revising and a good thesaurus.