So I’m going to try out a thing where on Friday’s I post a link (and maybe brief summary) of some longform piece on the web that I think is awesome for anyone who finds themselves with 20-40 mins of free time over the weekend. No worries if you aren’t interested, and if no one ever does I’ll just shut this little experiment down. This first piece is an oldie, but a goodie. I believe this is the first post I ever read on Wait But Why, a blog that is now at the top of my ‘Must Read’ list.…
Essays, Stories and other locally sourced prose
By JBS
My New Yorker Subscription
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Elizabeth Lemon. And, uh, this is what we’re up against. Four more years of a president chosen by people like her. She has an iPad subscription to The New Yorker. She vehemently opposes the Ivory Trade despite the jobs it creates. In her apartment there is a black and…
Other People’s Kids
A few weeks ago my family took a late afternoon trip to Costco. Shopping at Costco is a lot of work, and everyone ends up hungry by trip’s end, especially the 3 and 4 year old. So after filling our cart with comically sized food items we proceeded to the concessions area to purchase comically…
Somehow I Missed Prince
I never saw Purple Rain. I never owned a Prince album. In fact, I don’t know if I’d even recognize more than a couple songs of his. (Off the top of my head, Diamonds and Pearls, and…struggling here people to think of a second). Almost all of my knowledge about Prince comes from Charlie Murphy’s…
Carpe Carbs
When I was in fifth grade I was out riding bikes with some friends. We ended up at one kid’s house hungry and in need of a snack. Richie pulled out some ice cream and started dishing bowls for everyone. He asked if I wanted a bowl. “Nah,” I responded. “Could I just have a…
A Note To Our Reader(s)
Dear Readers, We here at Atomish are really excited about our growth over the last few months. According to our internal analytics, each of our posts has garnered at least 2 clicks, that’s two readers – at least one of whom isn’t on our staff! And they say blogging is dead. But we also aren’t the kind to rest on our laurels. We like to think of ourselves as being on the cutting edge, of really pushing the boundaries of electronic publishing. So today we are announcing something very exciting. Instead of just publishing one longish piece every few weeks,…
Confessions of a Not Quite Vegetarian
A few months ago my wife went away for a couple nights on a work trip. When mom goes away a couple of things always happen. First, the ratio of screen time to total hours awake approaches one. Second, we all eat like kings and queens. For the kids that might mean loading up the grocery…
Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts
The day before her thirty fourth birthday, I gave my wife a puzzle. Well, actually it was an address to a website I’d created that included an assortment of puzzles. To access the website she needed a password, which she would have found while completing the previous day’s puzzle. That puzzle, an Excel spreadsheet with…
Bobo-ish
When people ask where I come from I usually say D.C. Of course I didn’t actually grow up in D.C., I just say that out of force of habit because everyone knows D.C. but few people know the town of Laurel, Maryland where I grew up. Saying you are from D.C. is a shorthand for…
You Can’t Take It With You
When traveling with a pregnant woman through Italy, you end up eating a good number of meals by yourself. At least, this was the case when my wife and I spent a week in Italy together, while she was pregnant with our first child. No one tells you this, just like no one tells you…
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