Articles Written By Graham T. Beck
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The Nature Desk
Hey, Bear
Warning: The great American wilderness is home to many hungry stomachs, including some that reside in animals weighing 600 pounds more than you. Also: They travel in groups.
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The Holidays Desk
Liner Notes for Christmas
Christmas is a time for family and friends and very weird songs that only get played once a year. Eleven holiday songs researched and fact-checked to explain their appeal, including the mystery behind endorphins solely released by Mariah Carey.
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The Global Desk
The Perfect Forecast
Predicting the weather is an incredibly complicated task—and stopping it altogether is even more difficult. But that doesn’t mean scientists aren’t trying. A story of obsession, cloud seeding, and very powerful storms.
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A Pennsylvania Story
When the Town Stops Burning
For 50 years, a fire has been raging in mining tunnels beneath Centralia, Pa. With the town mostly evacuated long ago, what’s left? Mostly journalists and other outsiders looking in.
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Brief Histories
The Ghost of Berserker Christmas
Don’t worry this Christmas if your grandfather shoots up the neighborhood—it’s all in keeping with 200 years of tradition that have been whitewashed by consumerism. How wild Christmas—night of carousing, gambling, and booze—became family-friendly.
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Wild Turkeys
Happy Misgivings
Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but that doesn’t mean it’s not celebrated elsewhere. And each of those celebrations—in Liberia, in Leiden, in the South Pacific—give us fresh reasons to be grateful for our own messed-up version.
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Men & Women / Men & Men / Women & Women
The Things She Carried
Once a relationship is past the point of repair, once her Go Bag is packed for leaving, some things are better set down on paper than spoken aloud.
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Writing on the Wall
Tempest in an Inkpot
Don’t be fooled by the hand-lettering trend in movie posters and book covers—cursive is dead. Who cares? A million angry commenters around the web who extol the virtues of loops and curls. But the traditional form has a history that’s less than precious.
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Opinions
What Your Salute Says About You
Dear recent graduates: How you start an email reveals a lot more about your intentions than you know. Common e-greetings for etiquette voodoo.
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Profiles
Americhrome
From Schwarzkopf’s boots to traffic cones, the federal government’s official color palette—yes, it has one—controls much of what we see. An investigation into how America elects to paint itself.