worth reading: september 17-30, 2024

lmao you know how last time I said there were too many links? get ready for EVEN MORE LINKS.

the kitchen appliances, food, and foodstuffs category:

“A $700 Kitchen Tool That’s Meant to Be Seen, Not Used” by Ellen Cushing (unpaywalled)
- this one is too short imo but I'm always down for KitchenAid discourse
“Stalking the Wild Banana” by Jack Truesdale (unpaywalled)
- gosh this one is so good...contains many inviting photos of bananas but somehow none of the profile subject, who casually says things like “‘My default mode of being alive is “What is that banana?”’ and “I’m invited in with special banana eyes.” it also contains a reference to the next link....
“Gonna Pop These Overripe Bananas in the Freezer Until I’m Ready to Take Them Out and Throw Them in the Garbage” by Alexis Pooley
- self-explanatory (it's a McSweeney's article)
“The Perfect Cup of Coffee Doesn’t Exi—“ by David Friedman
- a surprisingly fascinating profile of the guy who invented the Aeropress!
“Food Voyages” by the New York Times Magazine
- this series probably requires a full Times subscription because of the formatting but the photography's really fun.
“The Tradwives Are Making Incredibly Weird Bread” by Anna Merlan
- tradewife discourse, while annoying, is also kind of my kryptonite but this is genuinely funny
- it also links to the next link.....
the Wordloaf newsletter by Andrew Janjigian
- a newsletter that's all about making (non-weird) bread! I'm definitely not the target audience for this one but the author seems kind of delightful
“Salt, Sugar, Water, Zinc: How Scientists Learned to Treat the 20th Century’s Biggest Killer of Children” by Matt Reynolds
- ok this is not about food per se but it is a super interesting and well-researched history of rehydration therapy for cholera, soooo....
“NEED EGGS • CALL EGGS MAN” by @freddie93 on the platform formerly known as Twitter
- call eggs man!

animal science and conservation:

“Punching Octopuses Lead Fish on Hunting Parties” by Elizabeth Preston (unpaywalled)
- :)
“The Machli I Knew: Remembering the grand old dame of Ranthambore National Park” by Valmik Thapar (unpaywalled)
- a tiger obituary (as in, an obituary for a tiger) that I wish was about four times longer and had more photos!

cars are too damn big (kind of self-explanatory):

“The Death of the Minivan” by Ian Boost (unpaywalled)
“Too Much of a Good Thing” by The Economist (author unknown?) (unpaywalled)

technology and internet stuff:

“Drowning in Slop” by Max Read
- max read always hits!
“Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops” by Gaby Del Valle
- interesting stuff to think about as California rolls out digital IDs.
“The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age” by Thea Lim
- "If we’re not being tallied, we affect the tally of others. We are all data workers."

the random catch-all category:

“What if every movie with a grim ending got a Speak No Evil-style remake?” by Tasha Robinson
- ok the title of this one is kind of lame but it's genuinely pretty funny
“Cut up and leased out, the bodies of the poor suffer a final indignity in Texas” by Mike Hixenbaugh, Jon Schuppe and Susan Carroll
- really good investigative journalism
“Plutocrat Archipelagos” by Jack Self and Pit Lempens
- the illustrations alone are worth checking out! also peep the author and illustrator's interesting names...they kind of sound like video game characters.
“Wisconsin’s Wooden Skyscrapers” by Matt King
- really cool and interesting! also for some reason the photos and headline reminded me strongly of this short story I read years ago but still vividly remember: “The Minnesota Diet” by Charlie Jane Anders