
The Best Magazine Articles Ever (2012) - michael_fine
https://kk.org/cooltools/best-magazine-articles-ever/
======
raldi
I would include "The Wedding Merchants" by Caitlin Flanagan for The Atlantic
in Feb 2001.

All about how it's not actually traditional for weddings to be the expensive
fancy extravaganzas they are today, and who made them that way and how they
did it.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/02/the-
wed...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/02/the-wedding-
merchants/302092/)

~~~
randycupertino
Oh I loved that article! It was helpful in my decision to have a smaller
wedding.

For one of favorite articles, I nominate this epic profile Tommy Tomlinson
wrote in 2014 on college/NFL QB Jared Lorenzen:

[http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11382220/ex-
nfl-...](http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11382220/ex-nfl-qb-jared-
lorenzen-lifelong-battle-weight)

Tomlinson one of my favorite writers, and the article is about Lorenzen's
struggles played a role in my own starting to get healthier. So, degrees of
separation, but I always felt like some day I'd read an article about Lorenzen
making a big transformation. Very sad to realize with news of his passing a
few weeks ago that it turned out differently.

[https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/07/ex-giants-qb-jared-
lorenze...](https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/07/ex-giants-qb-jared-lorenzen-
dies-after-battling-myriad-of-health-issues.html)

------
thundergolfer
Paul Ford’s “What is Code?” for Bloomberg tech I think deserves a mention.

Super ambitious and rewarding. I tried to purchase a paper copy because I like
it so much but felt ridiculous paying $80 for a magazine.

~~~
haste410
I would love a decent PDF as I don't like reading long form works on a screen.
The best I've found is a scan of the magazine here:
[http://veryinteractive.net/library/what-is-
code](http://veryinteractive.net/library/what-is-code)

~~~
Kalium
I found that particular article to suffer significantly once reduced to static
print. It takes advantage of the flexibility of being on a screen in ways that
significantly enhance the experience.

~~~
thundergolfer
Agreed. It's best enjoyed with the interactivity of the online version. I
mostly wanted the hardcopy as a keepsake.

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soniman
This is a trollish comment but do the DFW articles hold up?:

radio article - talk radio is for stupid people

cruise ship article - cruise ships are for fat people

Maine state fair article - tourism is for boring people

How much of his appeal was due to flattering the vanity of his readers?

~~~
AJRF
His language is beautiful and he has a way of writing that cuts to the base
truth of a situtation, which side by side (i.e flowerly language AND truthful
writing) seem like a contradiction, but I think it just highlights how
talented he was. His writing always had the best words in the right order. And
that means to me it will always be worth reading.

~~~
soniman
I wouldn't say the language is flowery. It's not. It just piles a lot of
details on the reader.

"Taxonomically speaking, a lobster is a marine crustacean of the family
Homaridae, characterized by five pairs of jointed legs, the first pair
terminating in large pincerish claws used for subduing prey. Like many other
species of benthic carnivore, lobsters are both hunters and scavengers. They
have stalked eyes, gills on their legs, and antennae. There are dozens of
different kinds worldwide, of which the relevant species here is the Maine
lobster, Homarus americanus. The name “lobster” comes from the Old English
loppestre, which is thought to be a corrupt form of the Latin word for locust
combined with the Old English loppe, which meant spider."

This goes on for pages.

------
freediver
“Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” was the reason I subscribed to The
Atlantic.

------
nkoren
Needs [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-
be...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-beginners)

~~~
teh_klev
That's a great article. Was also discussed here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8180493](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8180493)

------
zeristor
These articles all seem very good, I still have fond memories of reading Neal
Stephenson's article on optical fibres around the world (although I'm thought
it was David Brin who wrote it)

However these all seem to be articles in American magazines, I assume there's
a number of very good magazine articles in foreign magazines; although the US
is known to have more magazines that focus on long form articles.

~~~
hycaria
For french folks here, M le magazine du monde is good. But somehow US
magazines are even better.

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rchaud
Great timing for this link, as I just found my e-reader in a random corner of
my apartment after thinking I'd lost it while traveling! I'll be adding these
to the reading queue.

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neilkakkar
I'm stumped... What makes these great? Is it excellent writing? -\0/-

Leafing through a few, they seemed pretty mediocre in terms of saying
something new / teaching me something.

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q-base
The Mastermind from The Atavist needs a mention here as well. The best series
of articles I have read in a long, long time. Beware that they may take a lot
of your time if you start. [https://magazine.atavist.com/the-
mastermind](https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind)

Also agrees on "Have you ever tried to sell a diamond" from The Atlantic

------
Kaibeezy
Clicked through looking for “The Last Shot” from Harper’s, 1993. Was not
disappointed.

Article is re the perpetuation of impossible dreams at the cost of
disposability of lives underpinning pro sports.

Includes the immortal line uttered by a kid dreaming of enough money to buy a
Nissan Sentra: “That shit is milk.”

~~~
raldi
I don't understand; that article doesn't seem to be on the list.

~~~
Kaibeezy
It’s on the full list, 90s.

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hycaria
After we both read and enjoyed The voyeur's motel by Gay Talese (who didn't
know before hand, being from outside of the US), my SO offered me his book
Fame and Obscurity, which contains Sinatra's profile. The Bridge would
probably appeal at a lot of folks here.

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Arete314159
The Marriage Cure by Katherine Boo.
[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/the-
marriage-c...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/the-marriage-
cure)

------
mixmax
"High tech cowboys of the deep seas" should definitely be on the list

[https://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-
seacowboys/](https://www.wired.com/2008/02/ff-seacowboys/)

~~~
flyingfences
It is on the list.

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miesman
Well the goes the rest of the day

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dang
2013 thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397031](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5397031)

