culture
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The Sports Desk
Game Over
The NFL is an emperor with no clothes, no morals, and vaults of gold. As we prepare for Super Bowl XLVII, author Dave Zirin explains how greed and corruption have ruined the game, endangered players, and fleeced the public.
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Our Foreign Correspondence
Smog of War
More than a decade after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan—now our longest war—most Americans still know next to nothing about the people who live there, and the liberties denied them. Lessons from a rapid education.
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Personal Essays
Separate Housewives
A happy suburban neighborhood experiences its first affair. Soon every living room—every computer screen—reverberates with news bulletins. Even for the Facebook generation, divorce comes with surprises.
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The View From the Lighthouse
Right Here Waiting
After frequenting a local haunt where nobody knows his name, a Chicago writer makes new friends, rips on Richard Marx online, and then suddenly lands a real live celebrity musician at their door.
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Lunch Poems
J. Y. Strain
J. Y. Strain lives and works in Bloomington, Ill. This poem is dedicated “for my brother, regarding his ride.” I’d Like to See You at Thanksgiving ...
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Closing the Door
The Year That Was and Wasn’t
We gathered writers and thinkers to consider everything that happened over the past 12 months and asked them: What were the most important events of 2012—and what were the least?
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The Rooster
Announcing the 2013 Tournament of Books
The ides of March may be four months away, but a certain rooster is sick of waiting. Introducing the finalists and judges for TMN’s ninth annual Tournament of Books, presented by NOOK® by Barnes & Noble.
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Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 2012
A year’s worth of music listening, whittled down to the core. Because in the end, there can be only 10.
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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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Reading Roulette
Mikhail Shishkin
This is it, friends—the last round of our Reading Roulette series of contemporary Russian literature in translation, with one shot left in the chamber. But we’ve saved the best for last.
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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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Opinions
A Spot for Tea
It’s easy to hate Starbucks until you admit it’s responsible for nearly everything good in today’s coffee culture. Now the behemoth is poised, with a recent acquisition, to introduce America to hundreds of years of tea culture. A tea maker is grateful.