First Word #20
Quicksand, riprides, Phish, splash.
In June 2005, a former employee from the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the grounds of the Bonnaroo music festival in rural Tennessee. He wasn’t there to see the headliners, which included Dave Matthews Band and the lead singer of the popular jam band Phish.
From Lollapalooza to Detention Camps: Meet the Tent Company Making a Fortune Off Trump’s Deportation Plans // Jeff Ernsthausen, Mica Rosenberg and Avi Asher-Schapiro // Propublica
I didn’t particularly want to go for a run on the evening of Saturday, August 28th, 2021.
After the Hit and Run // Mari Cohen // Jewish Currents
I’ve felt pretty uninspired by the past two weeks writing-wise. I returned to this essay from 2023 that really moved me— I forget if I found it before or after my friend got hit by a car. The photos are beautiful, the interviews are brave, and it’s the only type of personal essay I want to read.
Massimo Vignelli wore a chalk-stripe suit.
Spaghetti Underground // Zoe Guttenplan // NY Review of Books
On the side of a highway leading to some of the most coveted slopes in the world, in a parking lot covered in snow, a form of affordable housing has emerged.
In a Snow Paradise, They Live in This Parking Lot // Rukmini Callimachi and Erin Schaff // New York Times
The quicksand depicted in films, when a daring adventurer is suddenly ensnared in a life-threatening vortex of sand, is largely a myth. But that didn’t make it any less scary when Mitchell O’Brien slowly began to sink.
Man Sinks in Quicksand and Emerges With a Girlfriend // Victor Mather // New York Times
On April 9th, Luke Marion, a gardener and seed purveyor who runs the YouTube channel MIgardener, posted a video that recommended planting particular crops for a “RECESSION PROOF Garden”….“The time to learn to swim is not once you’re swept out to sea from a riptide.”
Recession Indicators Are Everywhere // Kyle Chayka // The New Yorker
As president of Frat Party University, I am proud to lead US News and World Report’s “Top Party School” for twelve years running. It has been another incredible year of all-night ragers, never-ending keggers, and our annual “Spring Splash” that draws both hunks and hotties from across state lines.
But all of that is under threat.
Frat Party University Will Not Comply with the Trump Administration’s Demands // Charlie Dektar // McSweeney’s
Read Charlie’s latest humor piece xoxo <3
Welcome back from spring break. Are you having fun yet?
My acupuncturist says that everyone coming into his practice is feeling irritated: anger is the emotion of spring according to traditional Chinese medicine. According to TCM here are five major/seasons and emotions (Joy, Worry, Grief, Fear and Anger) each connected to a part of the body (for spring that’s the liver) which tend to flare up as the seasons change for many folks. Maybe you feel that feeling when you look out your window and feel the need to log off ASAP and run to the park?
Whether you believe in any of this is beyond the point but imo I feel the tension in the air.
The acupuncturist and I also, with my journalistic hat on, discussed the tariffs and how that may affect his studio and other medicine practitioners (more on this TBD). Writing right now feels so fleeting—if you try to write a tariff story, the policy changes by the time your draft is in. The reality seems to be reflective of social-media-timing rather than print or even blogging. For me, it feels like a good time to think about evergreen stories but doing so also feels like turning away from The Horrors. There’s no major takeaway here other than to say please send me good writing (and first sentences) that you feel is capturing the moment—or not!
