Repossessors and tow-truck drivers work different jobs but use the same equipment. The tow truck was patented in 1918 by Ernest Holmes, Sr., the owner of an auto-repair shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who pulled vehicles out of ditches using a modified Cadillac and chains. Today’s tow trucks, also known as wreckers, are computerized work stations with integrated digital dashboards, camera systems, blind-spot monitoring, and hydraulic rotators.
~ Paige Williams via The New Yorker
:::
via The Atlantic:
Anti-Semitism Gets the DEI Treatment
by Rose Horowitch
published on July 17, 2025
:::
Athens at the height of its golden age sailed for Syracuse and lost an empire. Thucydides spent the rest of his life explaining why. The generals of 1914 were cultivated, well-read men, but those qualities did not save Europe.
~ Yonatan Touval via The New York Times
:::
via The New York Times:
‘Japanese Walking’ Is a Fitness Trend Worth Trying
by Danielle Friedman
published on July 31, 2025
:::
Progressive Democrats have been trying, with limited success, to convince Americans that billionaires are their true enemy. Well, guess who loves to hate billionaires: aggrieved sports fans. Why not take a break from complaining that billionaires don’t pay their fair share of income taxes to focus instead on team owners’ obsession with avoiding the luxury tax by trading away their best players?
~ Nathaniel Frum via The Atlantic
:::
via Wired Magazine:
The Chinese Philosopher Americans Can’t Stop Fighting About
by Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis
published on August 7, 2026
:::
In the past quarter century, food culture has become ever more personal and confessional; perhaps the inevitable conclusion was that it would encompass, well, its inevitable conclusion. Like so many trends, this one was pioneered by gay men: one of the early luminaries of FibreTok was a sex educator and amateur chef named Alex Hall, who posts recipes on an account called The Bottom’s Digest. I admit to feeling some relief around the breaking of this taboo—after all, everyone poops, and we might as well do it better.
~ Hannah Goldfield via The New Yorker
:::