whyisthisinteresting

The Cities and Moods Edition

Ordinarily, street busking is an irritant. The L train runs cheek-to-jowl. Trash smells mingle with thick summer humidity and New Yorkers are gruff in the usual and familiar ways. But given the emotional tenor of the city — a sporting run generating real civic electricity, World Cup fixtures underway, and a large swath of the population feeling optimism — the complaints could be set aside for a moment. Not indefinitely. Just gently, briefly, the way you let a difficult friend off the hook on a good day.

whyisthisinteresting

The Monday Media Diet with Bodhi Landa

If you spend enough nights on the floor listening to people order martinis, explain natural wine to dates, or negotiate status through reservation choices, you start to realize restaurants are basically focus groups for contemporary aspiration.

3quarksdaily.com

Siri Hustvedt recalls her life with the writer Paul Auster

Before their wedding dinner, Hustvedt writes, a poet friend of Paul's lifted a glass and said, "To the bride and groom, two people so good-looking I'd like to slice their faces with a razor."

honest-broker.com

Why I Believe in Karma

It was amazing that a tactic so simple could defeat more sophisticated strategies. It suggested that there was something inherently powerful in reciprocity. Just as the proverb predicts: As you sow, so shall you reap.

3quarksdaily.com

On the Joys of Collecting Junk

My friends, being my friends, invariably champion the necessity of objects piling up in my yard.

longreads.com

‘The Worst Neighbor Ever’

The housed neighbors began to see things, and hear things, things they hadn't seen or heard so much before.