How to Plant a Library
Somewhere outside of Oslo, there are 1,000 newly planted spruce trees. One hundred years from now, if everything goes to plan, they'll be published together as 100 pieces of art.
A Letter Becomes a Book Becomes a Play
Sarah Ruhl's Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters From Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again takes 900 pages of correspondence between the two poets and turns them into an on-stage performance.
The Most Pointless Ferry in Maryland
Most of the some 200 ferries that operate in the United States serve a specific, essential purpose—but not the one that runs across the Tred Avon River.
Whispering in the Town Square: Can Twitter Provide an Escape From All Its Noise?
Twitter has created its own buzzing, digital agora, but when users want to speak amongst themselves, they tend to leave for another platform. It's a social network that helps you find people to talk to—but barely lets you do any talking.
Why I’m Not Sharing My Coke
Andy Warhol, algorithms, and a bunch of popular names printed on soda cans.
Long Live Short Novels
Christopher Beha's Arts & Entertainments comes in at less than 300 pages long, which—along with a plot centered on a sex-tape scandal—makes it a uniquely efficient pleasure.
Why My Neighbors Still Use Dial-Up Internet
It's not because they want to. It's because they have no other choice.
Hams Without Ends and Cats Tied to Trees: How We Create Traditions With Dubious Origins
Does it really matter if the reason for why you give money to newlyweds is based on a skewed version of a story your parents once told you?
How I Became a Knausgaard Truther
Did companies in Norway institute Knausgaard-free days in response to the popularity of Karl Ove Knausgaard's autobiographical novel My Struggle? It's a question that led to a search for proof that something never happened.
The Beginning of Time-Lapse
With Apple soon to introduce time-lapse photography to its phones, could we see the end of the selfie?