HELLO and welcome to the 266th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about head injuries in professional hockey! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Can You Believe? An Oral History Of ‘Queer Eye’, by Matthew Jacobs and Melissa Radzimski for The Huffington Post, June 2018
Having been here for the original in all its glory and now being here for the new one — this was a very nice snack for my eyeballs.
Dinner Theater, by Linda Besner for Real Life Magazine, September 2017
Blue Apron and TV Dinners.
The box opens out as a kind of introduction to the basics of idealized family life: this is what dinner is; this is what home is. Each ingredient is individually wrapped and Saussureanly labelled. “Green Beans,” it says on the green beans. “Saffron,” it says on the saffron.
On Chicken Tenders, by Helen Rosner for Guernica, June 2015
The author, now a professional food critic regularly dining out on inventive, expensive and delightful meals; finds herself drawn, in her downtime, to the simplest of foods. Like Chicken Tenders, which are perfect.
The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company, by Ellen Huet for Bloomberg News, June 2018
A long long time ago our writer Hannah went to a OneTaste workshop and had a very interesting experience there … and now, here we are, where these types of things so often seem to lead!
Of Breakdowns and Breakthroughs, by Jenny Aurthur for Longreads, May 2018
This story, which addresses, among many other things, the impact of familial suicide on its survivors, slaughtered me in a way I hadn’t quite expected.
I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls from Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter, by Geraldine DeRuiter for Everywhereist, January 2018
A reflection; a warning.
Intimacy, infamy, by Kristen Roupenian for The Times Literary Supplement, February 2018
The cynicism the anthology evoked in me when I tried to read it all at once was largely a function of compression and repetition. By the time I’d even finished the introduction, I’d completely lost the word “kiss” to semantic satiation: it had emptied itself of meaning and transformed into a purely silly sound. Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss.
A Company Built on a Bluff, by Reeves Wiedeman for New York Magazine, June 2018
I can’t believe that Vice still exists and has tons of money even though Shane Smith is so full of lies! It’s bizarre how many exposés have been done on various aspects of this company and how despite it all, they plow gamely forward. I can’t imagine a world in which your audience just arrived at your doorstep without you inviting them over, again and again, and asking if they wouldn’t mind bringing some chips or hummus for the potluck.
“SKAM,” the Radical Teen Drama That Unfolds One Post at a Time, by D. T. Max for The New Yorker, June 2018
Reading this reminded me of that piece I read about Degrassi in The New York Times Magazine a billion years ago, like, so this is what the children are doing and then before you know it I was a goner, I was doing it too. But even if you’ve got no interest in the show, this piece has lots of interesting things to say about storytelling and teenagers and our relationships to social media and television as a medium! Honestly the way this show imposes itself into interfaces where we typically only interact with real people has really intense implications.
Meet the New Mormons, by Sarah Scoles for Longreads, June 2018
A lesbian and her mother, estranged from their religion since its attack on same-sex marriage, attend the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake, a “a yearly gathering that includes liberal Mormons and ex-Mormons who are redefining their relationship with the church.”
Several Articles on The National Hockey League’s “Enforcers”
This week I ended up in a very unlikely k-hole, for me, a person who has been a total of two hockey games in my entire life (both in college) and beyond that my only relationship with hockey is through The Mighty Ducks franchise. It started here, with this not well-written but still very captivating story from The Player’s Tribune linked on longform.org. In it, retired NHL player Nick Boynton discusses the depression and physical pain he has endured from his years as an “enforcer,” a position which apparently involves just having fist-fights with other hockey players? I didn’t know this was a thing. This led me to Gone, by Daniel Carcillo, a 2015 video he made after the death of his friend, Steve Montador, a 12-year NHL vet, at 35.
Then I was like… what the hell is this? So I started googilng some of the other names that had popped up — it turns out several enforcers have died by suicide or overdoses — which led me to a three-part New York Times series from 2011 about Derek Boogaard, who died of an overdose of alcohol and oxy at the age of 28. His post-mortem brain examination revealed more advanced levels of chronic traumatic encephalopathy than other enforcers who died in middle age. In sum:
- Everything’s Not Okay, by Nick Boynton for The Player’s Tribune, June 2018
- Gone, by Daniel Carcillo for The Player’s Tribune, April 2015
- Book excerpt: ‘Game Change’ intertwines Steve Montador’s struggle, NHL’s concussion history,” by Ken Dryden for ESPN, November 2017
- After a Life of Punches, Ex NHL Enforcer Is a Threat To Himself, by John Branch for The New York Times, June 2016
- Derek Boogaard: A Boy Learns to Brawl, by John Branch for The New York Times, December 2011
- Derek Boogaard: Blood on the Ice, by John Branch for The New York Times, December 2011
- Derek Boogaard: A Brain ‘Going Bad’, by John Branch for The New York Times, December 2011
