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Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski | ProPublica | April 6, 2023 | 2,936 words
No matter where you get your news, youโve likely seen this story sometime in the last 24 hours. Itโs a bombshell investigation that reveals how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has received lavish gifts from a billionaire Republican donor named Harlan Crow, likely in violation of federal law. Said gifts include international cruises on a staffed superyacht, a Bible that once belonged to Frederick Douglass, flights on a private jet, and annual vacations to Crowโs luxury compound in upstate New York. Anyone with an iota of respect for democracy should be appalled โ albeit unsurprised, given everything we already know about Thomasโs associates,ย including his wife. Read it and rage. But also read it and admire the craft that went into telling the story. It is rich in detail, yet precise. Its tone is finely tuned. The selection and placement of quotes are [chefโs kiss]. The writers dole out gobsmacking information throughout the piece, right down to the kicker. This is top-notch reportingย andย delivery. A+ all around. โSD
Michael Hallย |ย Texas Monthlyย |ย April 4, 2023ย |ย 8,672 words
The legend of Robert Johnson dwarfs the man himself in many ways. Johnson wasnโt the first recorded blues musician, nor the most prolific of his era. Yet, his brief career and early death shrouded him in mystery and mythology, ultimately influencing the evolution of popular music itself โ and confounding would-be biographer Mack McCormick. McCormick, who spent much of his life chasing down the stories and music of men like Johnson, is the focus of this remarkable story, but heโs by no means a hero. He may have been once, whenย Texas Monthlyย executive editor Michael Hallย first profiled him 20 years ago; that was before his obsession overwhelmed his clarity, and his remarkable research into Johnsonโs life turned into something far more toxic. Now, Hall revisits McCormickโs life after his death, teasing the truth from hagiography and telling the long, twisting tale of a man crushed by his own masterwork. Having helped titans like Lightninโ Hopkins find the spotlight, McCormick long ago achieved his own legendary status. The question that persists is whether a legacy like his can be tainted by a flawed final act. โPR
Ben Goldfarb | Hakai Magazine | April 4, 2023 | 2,400 words
A reported essay on the intricacies of dog-leashing rules could have felt like a real slog. But Ben Goldfarbโs piece lifts off the page. In the opening paragraphs, we meet Kit, Goldfarbโs dog, as she runs along the beach with the wind flying through her floppy ears. Itโs an image I could instantly relate to: Like all dog owners, I love watching my own dog dash around off-leash. (Well, meander around. She isnโt the speediest.) But, sometimes, there can be an environmental cost. Goldfarb meticulously takes us through the problems of letting dogs off-leash on a beach, raising some concerns I had never considered. I felt for the shorebirds trying to rest after a long migration; as a contributor eloquently puts it, โImagine youโve just gotten home from work and want nothing more than to chill on the couch with a beer โ and then a pack of barking dogs tears into the house and chases you outside, over and over again.โ Combined with some horrific facts about little blue penguin deaths, this piece will make you think about when to unclip that leash. โCW
Meg Bernhard | n+1 | March 2, 2023 | 3,367 words
This week, Meg Bernhardโs piece hit the sweet spot for me as a reader, offering insight into a world I know nothing about: what itโs like to be a female long-haul truck driver. Iโm fascinated by the minutia of othersโ jobs and this piece delivered. Youโll meet members of REAL Women in Trucking, a rights advocacy group for women drivers, and get to know Jess, age 39, who escaped an abusive relationship to see America behind the wheel of her rig dubbed โThe Black Widow.โ โJess kept a secret credit card,โ Bernhard writes, โand left their home only with the clothes she was wearing. She went to her stepdadโs, applied for a trucking job, and was on a bus to a training facility in Indiana four days later. Halima spent fifth grade on the road. They solved math problems with dry erase markers on the truckโs windows and played catch in warehouse parking lots.โ โKS
Angela Burke | Eater | March 24, 2023 | 1,533 words
At an early age, I had mastered a critical skill in our house: lifting the lid on our humongous cookie jar to pilfer a treat, then replacing that lid in complete silence. As a cookie burglar, I was an apple that hadnโt fallen far from its tree. My Dad was always there first. And when my mom complained about dwindling stock, dad pointed the finger directly at me and my brother. (The nerve!) That cookie jar (a brown ceramic wooden stump with a creepy, grinning gray squirrel on top) sits on their kitchen counter to this day. Atย Eater, in this love letter to the kooky cookie jar, Angela Burke introduces us to artist and vintage ceramic cookie jar maker Hazy Mae. Her custom jars, in homage to Dolly Parton, Andy Warhol, Elvis, and Madonna (among others), can run $800 or more. That may feel steep, but can you really put a price on a vessel that could eventually contain fond memories, too? โKS
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Jayson Greene | Pitchfork | March 29, 2023 | 4,435 words
Yes, it has one of the best hed/dek combos Iโve seen this year, but Jayson Greeneโs look back at the spuming cultural wave known as the pop-R&B gigahit โBlurred Linesโ doesnโt stop there. It aims primarily at Robin Thicke, though Greeneโs got heat for everyone from Thicke collaborators Pharrell Williams and T.I. to Miley Cyrus. Sometimes the best culture-crit is steeped in a vat of acid. (That said, I regret to inform you thatย โShooterโ still goes superduperhard.) โPR
Today in the recurring series โAmerica is Brokenโ โ meaning, the news โ three reporters at Pro Publica reveal that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted lavish gifts from Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor. Thomas has flown on Crowโs private jet many times, gone on vacations to Indonesia and New Zealand on Crowโs yacht, and spent time at Crowโs compound in the Adirondacks. In doing so, Thomas has violated norms pertaining to judgesโ conduct and possibly broken federal law:
Soon after Crow met Thomas three decades ago, he began lavishing the justice with gifts, including a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass, which Thomas disclosed. Recently, Crow gave Thomas a portrait of the justice and his wife, according to Tarabay, who painted it. Crowโs foundation also gave $105,000 to Yale Law School, Thomasโ alma mater, for the โJustice Thomas Portrait Fund,โ tax filings show.
Crow said that he and his wife have funded a number of projects that celebrate Thomas. โWe believe it is important to make sure as many people as possible learn about him, remember him and understand the ideals for which he stands,โ he said.
To trace Thomasโ trips around the world on Crowโs superyacht, ProPublica spoke to more than 15 former yacht workers and tour guides and obtained records documenting the shipโs travels.
On the Indonesia trip in the summer of 2019, Thomas flew to the country on Crowโs jet, according to another passenger on the plane. Clarence and Ginni Thomas were traveling with Crow and his wife, Kathy. Crowโs yacht, the Michaela Rose, decked out with motorboats and a giant inflatable rubber duck, met the travelers at a fishing town on the island of Flores.