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Hipster church

Premium post · June 27, 2022

I almost have compassion for Rey Colón. He picked a fight, as aldermen do; it was, very profoundly, the wrong fight. A political rival campaigned against him...

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How to pick a serviceberry tree

June 24, 2022

You’ve heard of other berries, but not serviceberries. In June, they speak to abundance. They are small, sugary, in season for only a few weeks, and kind of...

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The sandwich we deserve

Premium post · June 22, 2022

Time changes a place. We never want to admit this. Our favorite stores should stay open forever. Our favorite restaurants must serve the exact same food...

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We have reached this point with respect to the soap bag, and there is no turning back

June 20, 2022

Travel toiletries are one of the weirdest things to me. They are a ritual that could only exist based on the essential tension between international law,...

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Clear tonic

Premium post · June 17, 2022

Your city can tell me a lot based on its relationship to gin. London kind of tucks gin under the rug, not wanting to admit its colonialist history,...

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The barbeque is not medicinal, despite appearances

June 15, 2022

I threw a barbeque over Memorial Day weekend. It was the usual sort of thing: a garage sale, a grill, lots of seltzer and beer. People rolled through on...

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Drawn line

Premium post · June 13, 2022

All stitching, on everything you own, is drawn, manually, with two hands. On every t-shirt you own, the cuffs are drawn with two hands, the seams are drawn...

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Hate right

June 8, 2022

I have come up with a new rule, and it is related to a topic nobody wants to talk about, for which I am already profoundly sorry. I promise the rest of this...

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The tiny tool tote

Premium post · June 6, 2022

You have a bag with 5 pockets, MOLLE webbing, ten sleeves. It opens like a pointy accordion. Knife, pen, leather-sleeved AirPods (it is always AirPods), and...

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Precisely like BBC Planet Earth, but lower stakes and far less interesting

June 3, 2022

So we need to talk about a misfortune that happened to me that is uniquely American for a variety of reasons, and in order to do that we need to go on a...

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Three boring, easy recipes

Premium post · June 1, 2022

All three of my most famous recipes are extremely simple. They don’t involve much; you can do them yourself. Two of them involve small pantry upgrades that...

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Brief notes on garlic & incompetence

May 30, 2022

I’ve lived in a grocery-poor, food-mad neighborhood for the past 11 years, once filled with eco-hippies who, at one point, started one of Chicago’s only co-...

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Ritual Practice

Premium post · May 27, 2022

Here are some things that I do that are conceptually related, I swear: I don’t ship unfinished work. This means you’re never going to see a public work in...

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Canon Flex

May 25, 2022

There is rarely a better option at a cocktail bar than dealer’s own, where you list a base spirit and some flavors, and the bartender does some clairvoyance....

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The Glorious Dirt Trench of the Kilbourn Park Plant Sale

Premium post · May 23, 2022

I moved into this house in 2016, and in 2017 I found myself with a raised bed in full sun, some really good soil, and a desire to grow food for my chosen...

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Alinea is overrated and you know this, but I'm writing text about it anyway

May 20, 2022

One of the final things to return in my life is tech conferences. I keynoted one a few weeks ago. It went well. I missed the people, the conversations, the...

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Tropical fruit

Premium post · May 18, 2022

In planning this past winter’s snowbirding, I lamented to my friend Theresa, long experienced with all of the yogic parts of Costa Rica, that I was having a...

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Spread text

May 17, 2022

It is time once again to write a brief update on the state of text. If you are here for regular text and not metatext, you may ignore it. This doesn’t count...

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Bad Shovel

May 16, 2022

There comes a point where one has to acknowledge that they’re working with software that has become very old. Workflows stay fixed for years, coming to...

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Some notes on flashlight people

Premium post · May 13, 2022

One of my favorite things about the internet is that rare moment when I stumble upon a community that has gone so deep down a rabbit hole of gentle...

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