Search results for “why's this so good”

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The 5 Most Read "Why's This So Good?" Essays

The 5 Most Read “Why’s This So Good?” Essays

We just posted our 100th “Why’s This So Good?,” Abeer Najjar’s look at the Susan Dominus story in the New York Times Magazine, “Hana.” Nearly twice a month since June…
January 20, 2016
"Why's this so good?" No. 94: Joe Rhodes and Aunt Marge and the deep (deep) freeze

“Why’s this so good?” No. 94: Joe Rhodes and Aunt Marge and the deep (deep) freeze

Joe Rhodes pulls off the nearly impossible in “How My Aunt Marge Ended Up in the Deep Freeze,” an edgy New York Times magazine piece. He takes a horrific event—the…
June 30, 2014
"Why's this so good?" No. 93: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the case for reparations

“Why’s this so good?” No. 93: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the case for reparations

It’s hard to know where to begin when attempting to grapple with the sprawling legacy of racial discrimination and oppression in America. But Ta-Nehisi Coates knows there to start. “The Case For…
June 3, 2014
"Why's this so good?" No. 92: David Foster Wallace and the view from the Midwest

“Why’s this so good?” No. 92: David Foster Wallace and the view from the Midwest

David Foster Wallace grew up in the Midwest but it was not really his home. Yet in September 2001, he was teaching at Illinois State University and living in Bloomington.…
May 20, 2014
"Why's this so good?" No. 90: George Plimpton and Sidd Finch

“Why’s this so good?” No. 90: George Plimpton and Sidd Finch

Twenty-nine years ago today, Sports Illustrated ran George Plimpton’s "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch," about a mysterious, unknown major league pitching recruit who threw a fastball at jet speed. Published…
April 1, 2014
"Why's this so good?" No. 89: Matthew Power and 'Mississippi Drift'

“Why’s this so good?” No. 89: Matthew Power and ‘Mississippi Drift’

My friend Matthew Power, wondrously excellent human and magazine journalist, died recently while on assignment in Uganda.Like so many others, in recent days I have missed Matt, older-writing-brother Matt, in…
March 25, 2014

“Why’s this so good?” — The Spring Break edition

In our “Why’s this so good?” series, contributors break down a favorite piece of journalistic storytelling. In honor of this, the season of Spring Break, three great reads in first-person…
March 18, 2014

“Why’s this so good?” – The badass women edition

From the “Why’s this so good?” archives, a handful of great reads about, or by, brilliant, brave, inspiring women, featuring Joan Didion, Rita Dove, Calvin Trillin, Julia Barton, Edna Buchanan,…
February 18, 2014

“Why’s this so good?” No. 88: Katherine Boo and the marriage cure

Katharine Boo begins her 2003 New Yorker piece “The Marriage Cure” with one of my all-time favorite opening lines:One July morning last year in Oklahoma City, in a public-housing project…
January 14, 2014

“Why’s this so good?” — the music edition

From our “Why’s this so good?” archives, a handful of great reads on music by Lil Wayne, James Brown, Britney Spears and Sly Stone, deconstructed for craft and significance by the…
January 3, 2014