Pinboard (coldbrain)

Tales From an Attic

coldbrain — 2024-04-07T07:39:23+00:00

Suitcases once belonging to residents of a New York State mental hospital tell the stories of long-forgotten lives

L.A. Street Names – Los Angeles Street Names – their origins, their histories, their meanings

coldbrain — 2022-08-30T10:54:06+00:00

Innovation and the incinerated tongue: Notes on hot chicken, race, and culinary crossover

coldbrain — 2022-08-29T08:37:51+00:00

When Every Ketchup But One Went Extinct

coldbrain — 2022-08-22T05:24:31+00:00

The main casualty of the catsup war was flavor.

A savior of abandoned American music contemplates his collection

coldbrain — 2022-06-05T20:47:47+00:00

The Annihilation of Florida: An Overlooked National Tragedy ❧ Current Affairs

coldbrain — 2022-05-25T19:58:30+00:00

An accelerating race to destroy Florida’s wilderness shows what we value and previews our collective future during the climate crisis.

The Exiled Musicians Who Escaped Fascism for Hollywood

coldbrain — 2022-05-18T20:07:16+00:00

Why Being Anti-Science Is Now Part Of Many Rural Americans’ Identity

coldbrain — 2022-05-07T08:38:53+00:00

The ancient potato of the future

coldbrain — 2021-12-11T16:22:55+00:00

The Notorious Mrs. Mossler

coldbrain — 2021-11-27T20:05:18+00:00

A Houston socialite was accused of plotting her husband's murder—and of having an affair with her nephew. But Candace Mossler was only getting started.

Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette (Keith Wailoo)

coldbrain — 2021-11-15T11:51:33+00:00

“I can’t breathe.” Those were George Floyd’s final words before he was murdered by police in Minneapolis — just outside a store known as the best place to buy menthol cigarettes. Today’s rise in Bla

Where is the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay?

coldbrain — 2021-11-14T18:20:37+00:00

The primate who ruled the news vanished again. A quest to find him led deep into Floridaâs monkey kingdom.

If We Can Soar

coldbrain — 2021-08-23T20:52:44+00:00

Why Black Angelenos have been raising Birmingham Roller pigeons for decades.

The Kit-industrial Complex

coldbrain — 2021-06-10T21:19:10+00:00

For some American soccer clubs, designing the best jersey is its own sport--and business

Who Invented the "Mexican" Food of the United States? | JSTOR Daily

coldbrain — 2021-06-10T19:41:51+00:00

Market Talk: Exploring South Philly’s Italian Dialect

coldbrain — 2021-05-15T21:02:38+00:00

What is the heck is a brahzhoot? While fading, the unique pronunciations of certain Italian food and the dialect of Philadelphia's Italian community endures on South 9th Street. Emma Jacobs takes us down to the Italian Market to examine the phenomenon.

An American Historian

coldbrain — 2021-05-03T21:07:43+00:00

The following is an excerpt from Joshua Cohen’s new novel, The Netanyahus, out next week in the UK from Fitzcarraldo Editions, and on June 22 in the US from New York Review Books. “The Netanyahus,” writes Colm Tóibín, “is constructed with a brilliant comic grace that moves from the sly to the exuberant. Some scenes are funny beyond belief. But even when moments in the book are sharp or melancholy, they keep an undertone of witty and ironic observation. The vision in this book is deeply original, making clear what a superb writer Joshua Cohen is.”

Is the world ready for Frank Lloyd Wright’s suburban utopia?

coldbrain — 2021-04-25T20:52:13+00:00

Thread Man

coldbrain — 2021-02-13T09:49:48+00:00

A profile of Seth Abramson

A Tale of Many Cities - NYTimes.com

coldbrain — 2014-03-10T12:52:18+00:00

The Salton Sea by Buzz Andersen - Exposure

coldbrain — 2014-02-19T16:16:46+00:00

David Remnick: On and Off the Road with Barack Obama : The New Yorker

coldbrain — 2014-01-20T18:10:17+00:00

How to make the perfect blueberry muffins | Felicity Cloake | Life and style | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2013-02-28T20:26:49+00:00

These aren't cakes, nor desserts, but putting those words here will help me find this later.

What the White House Looks Like Completely Gutted - NationalJournal.com

coldbrain — 2013-02-27T09:25:16+00:00

For Amusement Only: the life and death of the American arcade | The Verge

coldbrain — 2013-01-19T11:48:59+00:00

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: History’s a Bitch: A Dog Walk Through Time: Checkered.

coldbrain — 2013-01-10T22:23:25+00:00

The Road to Melville | Culture | Vanity Fair

coldbrain — 2012-12-25T11:34:20+00:00

How to cook perfect hash browns | Life and style | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2012-10-26T13:15:50+00:00

The Serious Eats Guide to Sandwiches | Serious Eats

coldbrain — 2012-09-10T18:55:53+00:00

A portrait of David Foster Wallace as a midwestern author | Lit & Lectures: Lit Feature | Chicago Reader

coldbrain — 2012-09-10T07:19:52+00:00

An Oral History of the 1992 US Olympic Basketball Dream Team on the 20th Anniversary: Profiles: GQ

coldbrain — 2012-06-13T16:29:40+00:00

Magic. Bird. Jordan. Legends at every position on the floor. Hall of Famers filling the bench. They were the greatest team ever assembled—in any sport—and twenty years ago in Barcelona, they put on a show the world will never forget

Death and Life of Great American Cities Modern Library: Amazon.co.uk: Jane Jacobs: Books

coldbrain — 2011-05-22T16:35:34+00:00

Ryan Holiday: This is one of the most important books about cities ever written. It's what helps you understand why cities work, why they don't work, what makes a neighborhood, what destroys neighborhoods and how almost everything city planners and governments think matters, doesn't. Seth Roberts is probably the biggest Jane Jacobs fan there is. He's what she calls an insider-outsider (insider in terms of understanding, outsider in terms of career) She was an activist and a student who understood the system but wasn't wedded to it or dependent on it for a living. It was this unique position that gave her the freedom and the perspective to explain the concept of American cities (and what's killing them) in a way that no one had ever done before. I also think that a lot of Jacobs' ideas about diversity, mixed uses, isolation, wealth and government can be applied to other parts of our lives. The way she gets to the core of neighborhood, passing up the easy or obvious signs that others are mistakenly distracted with, is impressive. There is a great Malcolm Gladwell article where he tries to use some of her ideas to dissect office culture--it's a good start and example about other canvases for her ideas.

Masters of the Universe Go to Camp [longform.org]

coldbrain — 2011-03-20T12:19:19+00:00

Every summer for more than a century, the all-male Bohemian Club of San Francisco has led a retreat into a redwood forest 70 miles north of the city, four and a quarter square miles of rugged, majestic terrain that members consider sacred. The religion they consecrate is right-wing, laissez-faire and quintessentially western, with some Druid tree worship thrown in for fun. The often bizarre rites have elevated what was once a provincial club for San Franciscans embarrassed by the rude manners of the Wild West into the most exclusive club in the United States, with 2,300 members drawn from the whole of the American establishment and a waiting list 33 years long.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (What Westerners can learn from the Chinese about failure)

coldbrain — 2011-03-12T20:54:14+00:00

Western parents are concerned about their children’s psyches. Chinese parents aren’t. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.

Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, and the Republicans : The New Yorker

coldbrain — 2010-12-30T10:36:45+00:00

For the fractious Tea Party movement, Beck—a former drive-time radio jockey, a recovering alcoholic, and a Mormon convert—has emerged as both a unifying figure and an intellectual guide. One opinion poll, released in July by Democracy Corps, showed that he is “the most highly regarded individual among Tea Party supporters,” seen not merely as an entertainer, like Rush Limbaugh, but as an “educator.” And in the past few months Beck has established his own institute of learning: the online, for-profit Beck University. Enrollees can take courses like Faith 102, which contends with “revisionists and secular progressives” about the separation of church and state; Hope 102, an attack on the activist federal government; and the combined Charity 101/102/103, a highly restrictive interpretation of rights, federalism, and the division of powers.

US politics is angry, polarised, and gridlocked. Can it be reformed? | Timothy Garton Ash | Comment is free | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2010-12-30T10:23:05+00:00

Washington moves at the pace of Brezhnev's Soviet Union. It needs to be more like Silicon Valley if it is to compete with China

James Truslow Adams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

coldbrain — 2010-12-06T08:19:40+00:00

James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was not related to the famous Adams family (though he wrote a book about the family in 1930). He was not an academic, but a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history, especially New England. and his three volume history of New England is well regarded by scholars.

American Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

coldbrain — 2010-12-06T08:18:49+00:00

The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase "Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.[1] The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."[2]

Freedom: Amazon.co.uk: Jonathan Franzen: Books

coldbrain — 2010-11-23T11:54:41+00:00

"A lavishly entertaining account of a family at war with itself, and a brilliant dissection of the dissatisfactions and disappointments of contemporary American life... Compelling...Freedom, though frequently funny, is ultimately tender: its emotional currency is both the pain and the pleasure that that word implies . . . That it also grapples with a fundamental dilemma of modern middle-class America—namely: Is it really still OK to spend your life asserting your unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, when the rest of the world is in such a state?. . . The reason to celebrate him is not that he is doing something new but that he is doing something old, presumed dead—and doing it brilliantly. Freedom bids for a place alongside the great achievements of his predecessors, not his contemporaries; it belongs on the same shelf as John Updike’s Rabbit, Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. It is the first Great American Novel of the post-Obama era."

Why environmentalism is a conservative concern

coldbrain — 2010-11-21T10:35:05+00:00

The reality is that conservative thinking provides a deep well of arguments for protecting the environment and tackling climate change. I would argue the long political and philosophical heritage of environmentalism is in essence, conservative rather than radical. If the action needed to enhance the security of our own and future generations seems radical, that is merely a reflection of the extent to which we have collectively lost touch with the conservative tradition.

Within the Context of No Context: Amazon.co.uk: George W.S. Trow: Books

coldbrain — 2010-11-20T16:16:41+00:00

Brief reflections on contemporary American culture cover celebrity, privilege, crime, drugs, teen-age alcoholism, race relations, politics, and the media.

The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism: Amazon.co.uk: Upton Sinclair, Robert W. McChesney, Ben Scott: Books

coldbrain — 2010-11-09T10:31:46+00:00

Ryan Holiday: In 1920 Upton Sinclair self-published arguably the first ever structural criticism of the corrupt and broken press system in America. Not only did he self-publish it but he refused to copyright it, hoping to pass through the complete media blacklist a book like this faced. It's not only fascinating but a timeless perspective. Sinclair deeply understood the economic incentives of early 20th century journalism and thus could predict and analyze the manipulative effect it had on The Truth. Today, those incentives and pressures are different but they warp our information in a similar way. In almost every substantial charge he leveled against the yellow press, you could, today, sub in blogs and the cable news cycle and be even more correct. In fact, the reason that most newspapers could escape this criticism is that over the last 50 years they have instituted many of the important changes he asked for.

How to make perfect pumpkin pie | Life and style | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2010-10-28T08:43:30+00:00

A proper pumpkin pie requires a proper cooking pumpkin – if you can't find one, use a butternut squash instead – crisp, flaky pastry, and the light creaminess of evaporated milk. All other flavours are up to you, as long as you remember to give thanks as you tuck in.

Blake Morrison on Freedom by Jonathan Franzen | Books | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2010-09-20T09:43:45+00:00

He is a No 1 bestseller who is also hailed as the foremost literary novelist of his generation. Nine years after the phenomenal success of The Corrections, has Jonathan Franzen pulled off the same feat with his new novel?

How to make the perfect hamburger | Life and style | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2010-08-05T08:39:26+00:00

Burgers may be fast food, but they're also a craft. There are clubs devoted to the cult of the perfect patty, endless articles devoted to the 20 examples you must "try before you die" (if they don't finish you off first), and every month, a new, and usually outlandish variation on the theme, from 10oz hunks of foie gras to doughnut buns. But I'm interested in taking the burger back to basics, with a classic beef number suitable for cooking on the barbecue, or a hot griddle pan.

Empire State Building: Can the tallest be the greenest?

coldbrain — 2010-07-28T11:11:31+00:00

Almost 80% of New York's energy consumption is through its buildings, mainly in the larger of the leaky older structures. Though politicians have tended to focus on energy consumption by individuals and tried to persuade families to cut their energy use at home, Malkin said the renovation of the Empire State Building would achieve savings in carbon emissions on a similar scale to comparable moves by 40,000 households.

BBC - Radio 4 - Front Row - The American Authors Collection

coldbrain — 2010-02-06T14:52:05+00:00

"Listen online to feature-length interviews with the greatest American writers from 1939 to the present."

Masters of American literature | Books | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2010-02-06T12:19:02+00:00

"With the death of JD Salinger last week, a remarkable era in US literature came to its end. Mark Lawson reflects on the passing of an unrivalled generation."

The Falling Man - Tom Junod - 9/11 Suicide Photograph - Esquire

coldbrain — 2010-01-28T10:45:38+00:00

"Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day."

The Things He Carried - The Atlantic(November 2008)

coldbrain — 2010-01-16T14:21:24+00:00

"Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."

Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector - T. A. Frank

coldbrain — 2009-12-04T12:30:59+00:00

"Presidential candidates are calling for tougher labor standards in trade agreements. But can such standards be enforced? Here's what I learned from my old job."

The Political Scene: The New Liberalism : The New Yorker

coldbrain — 2009-11-16T13:48:57+00:00

"Barack Obama’s decisive defeat of John McCain is the most important victory of a Democratic candidate since 1932. It brings to a close another conservative era, one that rose amid the ashes of the New Deal coalition in the late sixties, consolidated its power with the election of Ronald Reagan, in 1980, and immolated itself during the Presidency of George W. Bush. Obama will enter the White House at a moment of economic crisis worse than anything the nation has seen since the Great Depression; the old assumptions of free-market fundamentalism have, like a charlatan’s incantations, failed to work, and the need for some “new machinery” is painfully obvious. But what philosophy of government will characterize it?"

Truthdig - Reports - America the Illiterate

coldbrain — 2009-11-15T21:44:26+00:00

"We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth."