Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
A “hunger cliff” is looming for millions of Americans, with 32 states set to slash food-stamp benefits beginning on Wednesday. The cuts will impact more than 30 million people who are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in those states, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among the states…
Illustration: Benjamin Currie/GMG THE FUTURE OF LABORWhat’s next for work and workers Every morning, the Portland chapter of the Black Panther Party had a routine. Just before 6 a.m., a driver would pick up former U.S. Navy cook “Big Jeff” along with a heavy haul of food, and they would head over to the…
Illustration: Angelica Alzona (GMG) SOMEWHERE IN IOWA—Here is what happened, right before everything began to go to hell: It was June of 2015. The president was Barack Obama. I was a reporter for Gawker.com, a thriving independent media outlet. The 2016 presidential election was a year away, and the campaign season had just begun in…
Vern Loomis, a retired structural draftsman in West Bloomfield, Michigan, had a standard office lunch: a peanut-butter sandwich, with various fruit, vegetable, and dessert accompaniments. He ate this, he estimates, nearly every workday for about 25 years. His meal underwent slight modifications over time—jelly was added to the sandwich in the final five or so…
How many dumplings equal a “meal”? I’ve personally pondered this question because the number of dumplings I want to eat rarely corresponds with the recommended serving size. But this question also happens to come up when you read the text of California Assembly Bill 626, a new law decriminalizing the sale of home-cooked food. The…
For a 25-year-old coffee brand in Maine, the cannabis compound CBD is more than just a trendy ingredient. It’s a trademark. Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear opened Coffee By Design in 1994, selling coffee and espresso in an area of Portland once known as a “porn district.” Within a few years, the coffee shop had a nickname…
New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. hates water so much he’ll fight through painful cramps rather than hydrate. “When you get that stomach — it’s all slushy,” he told reporters. “I’m trying to stay hydrated, but sometimes I just gotta get an IV.” Lori Cheek, however, has him beat: She’s landed in the…
HF: So where does demonic possession come into play? SL: So in the medieval era, particularly between about 1300 to about 1600, this disease [ergotism], which we now know as food poisoning, was thought of as demonic possession. People would go to monasteries to be treated, where they most likely got better because they weren’t…
gallery js Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint makes some of the city’s best pizza, but excruciating table waits and a notorious no-takeout policy means that it can be frustratingly difficult to actually eat there. Which is one of the reasons why two years ago owner Paul Giannone decided he needed another storefront for feeding this pizza-crazy…
Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart. For those of you who don’t know, H Mart is a supermarket chain that specializes in Asian food. The “H” stands for han ah reum, a Korean phrase that roughly translates to “one arm full of groceries.” H Mart is where parachute kids go to…