#IfYouReadOneThingToday - A TGI Fridays masterpiece

In 2014, Caity Weaver published a story on Gawker that struck a nerve and burrowed itself deep into my long-term memory.

The title - My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers - is self-explanatory. The way she wrote the piece, however, was extraordinary, and has become a shining example of first-person longform journalism that reinforces why this genre is so precious.

It's a poignantly humorous piece, and as articles of this caliber often do, it worms its way to the surface every once in a while. And when it does, I'll follow the link home for a few minutes of literary joy. It's how I pause the planet on occasion.

I had one of those moments earlier today, except when I went to follow the link home, it was dead. Gawker shut down in February, and all of its content was summarily removed from the web.

Thankfully we have Archive.org, which snapshots digital resources before they disappear. If you're looking for a moment of literary joy, this is the article you'll want to start with. Here's the link.

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - Who is in space?

#IfYouReadOneThingToday, please make it this website:

    https://whoisinspace.com/

Why this? Why today?

Because with the launch of China's Shenzhou 16 mission to the Tiangong space station, there are now 17 people in Earth orbit - the most ever.

We live in an amazing universe, no?

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - scrambled brain

#IfYouReadOneThingToday, please make it this stunningly written piece about coming back from a TBI. Anyone who’s ever had their brain scrambled, and who lives with the fallout, knows profoundly how this feels.

How to Survive a Car Crash in 10 Easy Steps

A journalist navigates a world forever changed by her traumatic brain injury.

By Anne Lagamayo

Longreads

May 2023

Related:

Other #IfYouReadOneThingToday recommendations

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - Collaboration grows up

We’re way beyond Zoom Bombing. Collaboration tools like #zoom and #MicrosoftTeams are much more mature now than they were when COVID first hit. But are we using them properly?

In my latest STEP Software Inc. #STEPthoughts blog article, I take a closer look:

Collaboration tools hit their stride in the post-COVID age

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - Gordon Moore has left us

We have lost a giant of modern computing, the man behind Moore’s Law and the driving force behind the technology you’re probably using to read this post.

Gordon E. Moore, Intel Co-Founder Behind Moore's Law, Dies at 94

By Katie Hafner and Holcomb B. Noble

The New York Times

March 24, 2023

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Twitter & disabilities

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - Amid the intensifying firestorm that is Elon Musk’s Twitter, it’s easy to forget the frightening impact this is having on people with disabilities. This piece breaks my heart.

Twitter Was a Lifeline for People With Disabilities. Musk’s Reign Is Changing All of That

By Megan McCluskey

Time

November 11, 2022

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On the 737

Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot who also happens to be a tremendously gifted writer. I've followed him on his site, Ask the Pilot, for years, and recommend him to anyone with even a passing interest in aviation. If you're the kind of person who thinks airports are the neatest places on Planet Earth, you'll enjoy his work.

This piece is from 2019 - the Before Times, apparently - so it's been around a while. But I re-read it this week and thought it would be worth sharing here as part of our ongoing #IfYouReadOneThingToday series.

Long story short, he looks at the Boeing 737 MAX saga through a specifically historical lens, and explains the market-driven forces that ended up with Boeing deciding to stretch its venerable 737 just a little further rather than come up with a new clean-sheet design.

If you've been following the MAX story, this is a must-read. Then again, we should all read it, because it casts light on the factors behind what planes get developed, and how.

The Airplane That Isn't: Boeing bet the future on a 50 year-old design. Did it lose?

By Patrick Smith

Ask the Pilot

December 16, 2019

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Fire

I'm an ardent fan of long form journalism, as I believe the form can educate, inform, and move readers in ways that more timely pieces simply can't.

I grew up reading magazine articles, long, detailed features that took ages to work through and stuck with you long after you had moved onto something else.

Some of the best writers of our time are feature writers, and this particular piece from over two decades ago stands out as a particularly memorable example of the genre, a searing reminder of the simple power of a human story.

I occasionally share these pieces under the #IfYouReadOneThingToday banner. And while I can't say I want you to enjoy this particularly tragic read, I do hope it moves you as it moved me.

The Perfect Fire

It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3,000 degrees and the men of the Worcester Fire Department in a fight for their lives.

By Sean Flynn

July 1, 2000

Esquire

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On the iPod at 20

#IfYouReadOneThingToday, make it this clear-eyed view back in time, 20 years to the day since Apple introduced the iPod.

20 years. Unreal.

Inventing the iPod: How 'really big risks' paid off for Apple

For the 20th anniversary of the iPod, we talk with the inventor of Apple's iconic music player, Tony Fadell, who reminisces about working with Steve Jobs and the success of the device.

By Roger Cheng

CNET

October 23, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On newspapers

#IfYouReadOneThingToday, I hope you’ll make it this grimly detailed story on the decline of a local newspaper, and the ensuing cost to the community.

This matters to us all.

What we lost when Gannett came to town:

We don’t often talk about how a paper’s collapse makes people feel: less connected, more alone.

By Elaine Godfrey

The Atlantic

October 5, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Virgin Galactic

My tendencies toward being a self-admitted space cadet fanboy notwithstanding, I've watched the billionaire shootout to be the first to rocket into suborbital space with trepidation.

As much as I think the battle between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin will ultimately benefit the space industry - it brings attention, which drives investment, which results in sustainable economic activity and spinoff tech benefits across the rest of the economy - I've worried about the risks since the first plans were drawn up nearly two decades ago.

It hit me the morning of Branson's epic flight in July, as his PR team ran a perfectly produced video of him cycling to the spaceport in advance of his flight. My antennae twitched when I saw the video. Too perfect. Too staged. Lovely bike, though.

Turns out it was indeed a PR stunt, recorded days earlier on a bike expressly designed by Trek to be sold to space-fan cyclists.

All was not as it seemed. And The New Yorker just published a piece that highlights the sobering safety near-miss that day, two near-disasters in-flight in 2018 and 2019, and the troubling firing of the company's chief safety officer mere days after the Branson's flight because he dared raise issues about Virgin Galactic's safety culture.

This is a disturbing read to anyone who follows the industry. And it underscores the very real fact that it's only a matter of time before someone else dies on one of these things.

The Red Warning Light on Richard Branson’s Space Flight

By Nicholas Schmidle

The New Yorker

September 01, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On missing people

Have you ever sat on an exercise bike and wondered about how that experience of spinning your legs alone can change you? If you're a Peloton person, do you ever think about the communities we join through the screens in front of us?

Devin Kelly has, and his brilliantly, often painfully written first-person piece raises the kinds of questions many of us are asking as COVID restrictions once again tighten and we return to the bubbles that (hopefully) keep us safe.

I'm not a runner like he is. But I ride, and being out on your own for hours on end gives you lots of time to think about the connections we make, how we maintain them, and how that influences the trajectory of our lives.

A fascinating, important read.

I Miss it All

Against the commodification of community.

Devin Kelly

Longreads

July 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On the speed of life

Sometimes you come across a piece of writing that reads like poetry, that seems to reach out and not so much touch your soul as gently graze it.

This is one such piece, a first-person perspective by New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl on the speed of life, and how we might want to reframe how we choose to navigate it.

It's an easy five-minute read, but for some reason it sticks with you long after you've finished it and moved on to something else.

Some writers are just gifted that way, I guess.

Enjoy.

I Don’t Want to Spend the Rest of My Days Grieving

By Margaret Renkl

The New York Times

August 9, 2021

Alternate link here.

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Humboldt

It's a tragedy that continues to resonate among Canadians: on April 6, 2018, a transport truck blew through a stop sign and obliterated a bus carrying members of the Humboldt Broncos minor hockey team.

16 members of the team died, and a country whose very identity often seems to revolve around hockey, particularly the long, dark journey through the minors to the big leagues, mourned them.

Jaskirat Sidhu was driving that truck. After pleading guilty to 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily injury, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, where he currently remains.

The story of how the families have engaged with him in the three years since serves as a poignant commentary on the benefits - and limits - of forgiveness.

It's not an easy story to read. But it's an important one.

Forgiving Jaskirat Sidhu

By Aaron Hutchins

Macleans

August 4, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - DogShow!

We're going to break with convention today, as our latest #IfYouReadOneThingToday entry isn't about an article. Rather, it's about a video.

It's called Talking Dogs, and in just under 5 minutes, Brooklyn filmmaker Mat Cascella manages to reinforce what it is about dogs that dog people love.

Here's the link.

If you're a dog person, you'll get it. If you aren't a dog person, hopefully you'll be swayed.

Because dogs are remarkable, and little vignettes like this, that celebrate them, deserve to be seen.

Enjoy!

Talking Dogs

By Max Cascella

Big Shins

July 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On mothers and daughters

Sometimes you come across an article that is so fluidly written, so achingly real that it sticks with you long after your eyes have grazed over the final word.

This piece qualifies in spades. It initially presents itself as a single mother's ode to her daughter's graduation experience amid the pandemic, but it's so much more than just that.

Anyone who's parented a child will feel this piece. And even if you haven't, there should be more than enough here to move you.

Road Grad

By Jill Talbot

Longreads

June 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - OnThatEricAlper

Continuing our ongoing theme of finding reads with a happier tone, I offer this gem, a profile piece on Eric Alper - aka That Eric Alper. Point of pride: he's Canadian, and his love of all things music and of the music industry in general has allowed him to build a significant global brand.

He's figured out the Twitter thing, using the platform to create engagement around his beloved industry and the artists who create the magic both in and between our ears.

I was tickled when I saw this piece in Billboard, and I suspect you will be, as well, when you read it.

Enjoy.

Eric Alper Is Just Asking Questions

By Zach Schonfeld

Billboard

June 28, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Sailing

I've decided the world is too rough-and-tumble for my taste, with too many people taking themselves so seriously that there doesn't seem to be room for any light to squeeze in and highlight how ridiculous they both seem and look.

So I've been deliberately seeking out long-reads that shine a decidedly different kind of light - namely on people who have decided to not take things as seriously as others.

Of course, when it involves personal safety in the middle of large bodies of water, perhaps a little more seriousness might be called for. But this is a great read, anyway, and I hope it makes you smile - and think - as it did me.

The Greatest Boat Race Ever (Dreamed Up Over Beers)

By Abe Streep

Outside

October 14, 2015

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On losing a brother

You may recognize Ken Leung, as he's a rather famous actor you've probably come across in the movies or on TV.

What you may not know is that Ken had a younger brother who died half a world away.

I share this here because as someone who lost a sibling and struggles to this day to make sense of unfathomable loss, I often feel like I'm doomed to spend the rest of my life stumbling into stories I hope offer some form of guidance.

And when I come across a particularly significant or otherwise poignant example, I feel compelled to post it here.

The Water in May

By Ken Leung

GQ

June 17, 2021

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Pfizer

I'm doing a lot of pandemic-centric reading these days. No surprise, really, as it's entirely normal that this generation-changing event would drive a similar wave of all-encompassing media coverage. (Note to self: this is why we need strong media pillars.)

I'm fascinated by the stories behind some of the major players in the fight against the virus. And few players are more major than Pfizer, the global pharma giant that turned the tide against the pandemic with the first approved vaccine against it.

But as is often the case, the route from here to there, or from there to here, or from despair to salvation, or wherever, is hardly linear. And Pfizer is no exception - which makes for great journalism.

Enjoy...

Inside Pfizer’s Fast, Fraught, and Lucrative Vaccine Distribution:

The company is a hero of the pandemic for its Covid-fighting wonder shot. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t made entire countries angry

By Stephanie Baker, Cynthia Koons, and Vernon Silver

Bloomberg Businessweek

March 4, 2021