Rachel’s Team Pick:
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Earlier in 2012, the New York Times Book Review published a “How-To Issue.” While male authors had such articles as “How To Write,” “How To Write Great,” and “How To Win An Election,” women authors had significantly fewer pieces selected, and those published were on topics such as “How To Cook A Clam.” (Real thing.) As a reaction, the tumblr The How-To Issue was born, which features how-to pieces of varying tones and on varying subjects by “women writers, genderqueer writers, and writers who do not identify with a binary gender.”
The project was started in July, but I just heard of it recently, when a close friend of mine was published there. But it made me think: we all know how to do a lot of things. I know how to fix a kitchen faucet if something is clogging the screen, and how to give a parent bad news over the phone, how to drink free tea at Starbucks in the airport, and how to pretend to be asleep on a long car trip if you don’t want to make conversation with the person you’re traveling with. I am convinced you know a lot of important things too: how to come out to clueless relatives, how to share chips and dips with your ex girlfriend’s current girlfriend’s ex-hookup at a party, or how to wear a skinny tie. And even if you’re not ready to share your secrets with the world, you can still read about how to use origami as a survival skill, send a great postcard, or how to strip your way across the country.
