Trader Joe’s, circa 1877: “It’s always the same complaint: ‘Joe, you don’t have any of the essential items that every other trading post has. Why don’t you have saddles? Or gunpowder? Or basic tools?’ Because I have soy chorizo, that’s why! Because I have chocolate-covered peanut-butter-filled pretzels!”
Cash, Credit, or Barter?
The Fitzgeralds in Comic Form
This is the best comic about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald you’ll read all day, I promise.
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A Different Time
Last week, I wrote about the disparity between Norman Rockwell’s inner life and the cheerful art that made the painter famous. In the new issue of The Atlantic, James Parker writes about the “unconscious energy” of Rockwell’s work, while on the magazine’s website, Jennie Rothenberg Gritz republishes an old article that examines how Rockwell’s style could seem outdated even in the fifties.
This Charming Man
His music isn’t letting him get what he wants, so Morrissey is turning to writing instead. After his autobiography, Morrissey, was more successful than any of his records, the musician is writing a novel next.
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Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s Remembers the Beauty of the World Through Poetry
Melissa Lozada-Oliva discusses her new novel in verse, Dreaming of You, and the role poetry plays in keeping us attuned to the beauty around us.
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On Granta’s “Prescient” List
Recommended: Ellah Alfrey on selecting Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.